While training for the upcoming track season at Marshalltown High School last winter, Nick Lacina had no idea his life was in for a drastic change.

On Feb. 24, Lacina was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, a type of blood cancer that starts with a change to a single cell in the bone marrow, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Web site.

Physically fit and healthy, Lacina was running a 5:05 minute mile indoors before the season started last spring.

“When practice started, though, I noticed I was lacking energy and having intense pain in my arms,” said Lacina, now a freshman in civil engineering.

He went to pediatrician Jim Metzger at the McFarland Clinic in Marshalltown, and results from blood tests showed a high level of white blood cells. His family then went to see Mohamed Radhi, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, for a bone marrow aspiration, a process in which a sample of the liquid portion of the bone marrow is taken, according to the Mayo Clinic’s Web site.

The results of this test were positive for the leukemia.

“It was really hard for me to believe,” Lacina said. “All of my life I had been such a healthy, fit person. I was a varsity runner, an athlete, and was rarely sick. We have no family history of leukemia whatsoever, so it was a blind-side hit.”

Coping with cancer

Lacina’s family and friends had the same reaction he did and questioned how this could happen to someone so healthy. He said his friends were shocked.

“When people think about cancer, they think of somebody sickly, who is always in the hospital and not able to do much,” Lacina said. “Cancer can happen to anybody, and the scariest thing is there is no exact rhyme or reason that scientists have figured out for why cells mutate or why they turn into cancer.”

Lacina’s treatment plan is three years of chemotherapy. Since his diagnosis, he has gone to weekly chemotherapy treatment sessions in Iowa City up until Oct. 6.

His parents, Kindra and Kyle Lacina, would pick him up Monday nights, and he would spend the night at home. The family would then wake up at 6 or 7 a.m. on Tuesdays and drive to Iowa City.

Lacina then began what he calls the “maintenance” phase, having chemotherapy treatment sessions once a month, then once every three months, once every six months, and so on, for three years.

Since he is coming out of one of the most intense stages in the chemotherapy process, Lacina said he feels drained and fatigued. In this last stage of protocol, he is required to have chemotherapy shots in his legs Tuesdays through Fridays instead of just one dose on Tuesdays.

“That much chemo knocks you down,” Lacina said. “But I finished all that up last weekend, and my body is starting to heal itself. It’s starting to get better.”

After working with ISU Student Disability Resources and getting signatures from his professors excusing him from missing class for hospitalizations, Lacina is able to keep up with his homework. Although he cannot always attend classes, his professors have told him that his attendance is not a concern. If he misses an assignment, he can discuss it with the professor or receive it by e-mail. He can get missed notes from his teaching assistants.

One professor in particular has stood out to Lacina: Daniel Krier, associate professor of sociology.

“He’s very empathetic, understands my situation and is really willing to help,” Lacina said.

Lacina is taking 10.5 credits this semester, but says that as he gets better, completing schoolwork will get easier, and he will be able to handle a larger work load.

Because he hasn’t been well enough to be out and active yet, Lacina has not been able to participate in extracurricular activities or clubs. He is considering one day joining the Salt Company Student Fellowship, Freshmen Council, ISU Guitar Club and a club for video game players.

Lacina is currently learning to play guitar from one of his roommates, Daniel Brouwer, sophomore in pre-computer science and Lacina’s best friend from Marshalltown. Lacina’s other roommates are Ben Sissel, freshman in aerospace engineering, and Michael Best, freshman in engineering. Sissel is a friend of Lacina’s, who moved from Marshalltown to Cedar Rapids during high school but kept in contact. Best is Sissel’s friend from Cedar Rapids, so they are “all connected in some way,” Lacina said.

Although Lacina is burdened by being hospitalized or having to stay in the residence halls to avoid viruses because of low white blood-cell counts, he said he is experiencing everything at Iowa State like any other freshman.

“It’s our first experience living long-term away from home. We’re in a new environment and are making new friends,” Lacina said.

One of Lacina’s goals is to run a marathon, most likely in conjunction with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program, which helps raise money for research toward the mission: “to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.”

Right now, Lacina is unable to run due to medical complications, but as soon as his doctors give the OK, he is going to start rebuilding his endurance.

Lacina’s advice for others going through the chemotherapy process is simply, “It gets better.”

Running for a cure

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

Since its first funding in 1954, the organization has received more than $600 million in research funding. With 64 chapters across the nation and in Canada, in 2007, it had made 5.1 million contacts with patients and health care professionals.

According to the organization’s Web site, the “relative five-year survival rate for people with leukemia has nearly quadrupled in the past 48 years.”

The society’s Team in Training program currently has 23 people signed up to run in honor of Lacina this winter. Two, Suzanne Hendrich and Emily Zimmerman, are a part of the ISU community.

When her friend’s husband died of leukemia this summer, Hendrich, professor of food science and human nutrition, decided running in a half-marathon to support cancer research would be “a good thing to do.”

Though Hendrich has run in half-marathons three times before, she has never done one to raise money. She will be running the half-marathon at P. F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and Half-Marathon in Phoenix on Jan. 17.

“I saw people with Team in Training T-shirts and thought maybe it was something I could try,” Hendrich said.

At first, Hendrich said, she asked herself “What am I doing this for?” But after a while, she got into a rhythm, looked around and was able to enjoy being outside.

What motivates Hendrich is the fact that she is doing something to improve her own health and is helping others at the same time.

“Doing this has given me a lot of appreciation for what someone [with leukemia] would be dealing with,” Hendrich said. “I understand what it’s like to be a student at a major university and have a lot of admiration for someone who is able to continue while dealing with major health problems.”

Emily Zimmerman, junior in biology, is running a marathon in honor of Lacina in the same race as Hendrich. What makes the day even more exciting is that it happens to fall on her 21st birthday.

Although Zimmerman ran cross country in high school, the longest she ever ran was around 2.3 miles.

She was motivated by a former teacher in her hometown of Marinette, Wisc., who also ran for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. Although it has been a big change from high school cross country, Zimmerman has set her biggest record yet: 13 miles.

“Nick is such a great motivator,” Zimmerman said.