Football « Kevin Walsh

Matt Szczur, Villanova Wide Receiver

Sometimes it’s best to just let others tell their story in their own words. Here’s the set up. Villanova University Wide Receiver Matt Szczur, a South Jersey native, got a call that he was a bone marrow match for a one-year-old girl with leukemia. He will go to transplant for the little girl right around Christmas. Watch the joy in his face. This is what I’ve been telling people about for years and wrote about in The Marrow in Me–the impact of getting that magical phone call. My pal and colleague Ron Burke of Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia picks it up from here:

click here for video:

Andy Talley, Villanova Head Football Coach

Now here’s the back end of the story. Last spring I had breakfast with Villanova Football Coach Andy Talley at Minellas Diner in Wayne, PA; just down the street from the University. As he picked through his western omelette and I spread cream cheese on my toasted bagel I asked him, “Coach why bone marrow? Is there a family connection to leukemia or blood cancer?”

“No, I was just watching TV late one night years ago and I saw this story about the need for bone marrow donors and I thought, hey I can do that. I have 100 players I can register,” he said.

So what started in 1993 with Talley’s 100 or so players and friends has grown into a revolution. With the National Marrow Donor Program’s help Coach Talley has started the Get in the Game and Save a Life Program which has registered more than 11,500 people. Twenty six other college football programs across America are copying the Coach’s plan.

“You know Coach this’ll be your legacy,” I told him as he grabbed the breakfast check.

“Well we’ll see,” he said with a smile.

And we’ll all be watching, hoping and praying Matt Szczur’s gift of life saves the life of the little girl.

I know, I know. The headline seems ridiculous. How can you possibly be blessed to have cancer? Nobody raises their hand and volunteers for it. But some people embrace their illness and see it as an opportunity to grow personally and spiritually; to serve as an example for others. That’s what I see in Mark Herzlich, the stud Boston College Linebacker who’s sidelined this season with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

Given his druthers I know he’d like to be playing instead of prowling the sidelines, carrying the yellow towel and sporting a bald head that is the obvious result of his chemotherapy and hair loss. But the visibility he’s garnered with his cancer fight is doing so much more for so many people than a good season ever could. He’s a glowing example of courage and not letting the cards of life get you down. He’s playing the hand God and cancer dealt him and he’s not just surviving, he’s thriving. We can all learn a lesson from that and apply it to our own lives.

Mark Herzlich

http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/ncf/news/story?id=4526574

Mark reminds me of my friend in Hawaii, Chris Pablo, whom I wrote about extensively in The Marrow in Me. Chris found a golf ball with the words beat leukemia stamped on the side just three weeks after he was diagnosed with leukemia. Instead of privately hunkering down to fight the cancer, Chris put himself on public display. He found a lifesaving bone marrow match from a double amputee who heard about Chris’s story and that of a little girl in a similar plight. Ultimately because of Chris’s public fight, 86 people were identified as bone marrow matches and went to transplant. “I was blessed with leukemia,” Chris says. “I wouldn’t be half the person I am today were it not for leukemia. It made me a better person, a better husband and father.”

And that’s how I think this will all play out for Mark Herzlich. He might return to be the same great football player he was before bone cancer bumped him off the field, giving him a chance to once again play the game he loves and to lead the Eagles to more wins on Chesnut Hill. But I doubt that’s what Mark Herzlich will be most remembered for. His courage and grace in tackling a deadly disease in his bones is far more memorable and longer lasting than any bone crushing hit could have delivered over the middle. He’s been blessed with cancer. Do you have an interesting cancer story to share? Send a reply.