Cancer Survivor Still a Kid With Courage

By Meredith Hines-Dochterman, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Jul. 5–IOWA CITY — Derek Thuecks met supermodel Cindy Crawford when he was a teenager. He met her twice more in his 20s.

A photograph was taken at each meeting. As an undergraduate college student, they were displayed in his dorm room.

“That was pre-marriage,” said Thuecks, 28.

The University of Iowa graduate student will take a fourth picture today.

Thuecks, who lives in Cedar Rapids with his wife, Suzanne, will meet Crawford at Kids with Courage, a reunion of childhood cancer survivors and their families, and families of children who did not survive.

All attendees are patients who have been or are being treated at American Family Children’s Hospital, formerly the University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital, by the UW Division of Pediatric Oncology in Madison.

Crawford’s brother, Jeff, was a patient at UW Children’s Hospital. He died of leukemia in 1975. Crawford has contributed time and money to the UW Pediatric Oncology program for nearly 20 years, attending Kids with Courage every four years, meeting with patients, survivors and their families.

“You can’t understate that benefit,” Thuecks said with a laugh.

Thuecks was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1985. He underwent chemotherapy treatment at American Family Children’s Hospital for three years and is cancer-free.

Thuecks doesn’t have vivid memories of his years as a pediatric cancer patient. He recalls learning lamaze-type breathing techniques to keep him calm during procedures but said most of the experience seems “like another lifetime ago.” Thuecks has attended all three Kids with Courage reunions and looks forward to today’s event, too.

“I get to see my doctor again, who I don’t see anymore,” he said. “And it’s good to talk with others who have been through similar experiences.” Event organizers said Kids with Courage serves as a local and national platform for raising awareness of needed improvements in research, treatment, health care delivery and social service support; enables the community to support important efforts that influence local and national programs devoted to improving the care and futures for children with cancer; and provides spiritual bonding for families stricken with cancer.

“They see that they are not alone in what they are experiencing,” Thuecks said. “They see that during and after treatment, people are living normal lives.”

Contact the writer: (319) 398-8434 or meredith.hinesdochterman@gazcomm.com

—–

To see more of The Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.gazetteonline.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.