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His battle won, he fights for others

With his own leukemia in remission, a Palm Harbor teen will be the national poster child to raise money to help others with the disease.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES
Published March 27, 2005

	[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford]
	Jordan Holzmacher, 13, sits in his bedroom in Palm Harbor, which shows off his allegiance to the New York Yankees. Jordan is the 2005 poster child for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

PALM HARBOR - His dark chocolate eyes and soft-spoken smile are popping up all over the nation, in restaurants, quick markets, banks and health clubs.

But it's not a modeling job Jordan Holzmacher would have asked for.

The seventh-grader at Carwise Middle School is the 2005 poster child for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, a nonprofit health agency that raises money for research and provides services for patients with blood cancers. His image graces 600,000 coin boards that will raise an expected $2-million this year.

"I want to help raise money for research because it is what saves people like me," the 13-year-old said while showing off his New York Yankee-themed Palm Harbor bedroom.

In 2000, Jordan was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

It was a double whammy, but Jordan is in remission. After a long, arduous battle, he is not walking away. He continues to help by raising awareness and funds for research that will lead to better treatments and, he hopes, a cure.

"He knows what suffering is all about," said his mother, Fadia Holzmacher, 51.

She and Jordan have made three annual treks to Washington, D.C., where they lobbied for more research money for blood cancers keying in on interested parties like Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, U.S. Rep. Michael Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs, and U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-Rhode Island.

"It was a different kind of experience," Jordan said. "I don't know if I'd ever get the chance to do it if I didn't have cancer."

Jordan also helps at many local fundraisers, speaking about his experiences and talking about advances in research. He sometimes visits sick children at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, sharing his stories and giving them hope.

And he has used his artistic skills to help the Children's Cancer Center in Tampa, creating Christmas card pictures which are sold in grocery stores during the holidays.

"Jordan is a hero," said Anna Maria Gentile, the regional director of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and former executive director of the group's Suncoast chapter. "There were many times when he was sick and had just finished a treatment, but that didn't stop him. He went out and helped put a face on the disease. He represents all the kids that didn't make it and gives hope to others."

She said that this year the organization would donate close to $40-million to blood cancer research.

Jordan, a diehard Yankees fan, said he would rather go watch spring training any day, but he knows the work is important.

"He's torn between helping and sometimes just wanting to forget about this and move on," said his mother. "But he knows he is living proof that treatments and medicines are improving."

Dr. Cameron Tebbi, the pediatric hematologist and oncologist who treated Jordan, said that in the 1960s, the long-term survival rate for patients with these cancers was only about 15 percent.

"Now about 80 percent survive," he said. "We're inching up in the percentages, but a single cure-all is still a long way off."

He said Jordan is a "wonderful kid from a really nice family. He's a real good fighter. He has a very bright future, and it's unlikely his disease will come back."

Five years ago, Jordan nearly lost his life.

On Nov. 8, 2000, Jordan began having chest pains while playing soccer. Chest X-rays detected a mass that was crushing his heart and lungs. His face swelled, his spleen enlarged and his kidneys were failing. His white cell count was stratospheric. He was in such critical condition doctors gave him only 12 hours to live. It was then the diagnosis was made.

He pulled through and for three years has undergone chemotherapy, radiation treatments, numerous spinal and bone marrow taps, and hundreds of needle pricks.

He was nearly bald for three years, missed the third grade and half of fourth, but managed to catch up and is now in honors classes at school.

During his three-year treatment, he weighed 52 pounds and "never gained a pound," said his mother.

All the while, he kept a sense of humor about the ordeal. One Halloween when he was hairless, he dressed up as one of his former oncologists, who was named Dr. Keuker, and wore the name tag "Dr. Puker." He still keeps a souvenir of radiation therapy in his bedroom closet: an eerie white thermoplastic radiation mask that he wore during treatments.

"That was a scary adventure," he said.

Now at 90 pounds, he looks healthy and fit. He and his family try to forget about how bad he felt, and instead focus on the positives.

The Make a Wish Foundation sent him to Alaska two years ago, where he fished, panned for gold, stood on a glacier and rode in a helicopter. He was named the 2004 Hero of Hope by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He has met many famous sports heroes who play for the Yankees, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

"Over past five years, we've been blessed by wonderful friends and people in the community," Mrs. Holzmacher said. "But we're glad to back in to a normal routine."

Call the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at (813) 963-6461.

[Last modified March 27, 2005, 00:34:19]