I am Racing to Save Lives in Honor and Loving Memory of Matthew Kawka

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

I'm training to participate in the Virginia Beach Half Marathon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor and memory of my wonderful son, best friend, and hero, Matthew who died from Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma. We need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Our son, Matthew, passed away at age 18 on December 7, 2005 from complications as a result of receiving treatments for Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

My son Matthew was a wonderful young man who loved life and his family. He was really looking forward to the next phase in his life in his junior year of high school in 2004/2005. We had been talking about visiting colleges. Matthew was trying to decide what he was more interested in focusing on for his future; his love of technology through computers and desktop publishing or a career as a future lawyer. Matthew was not only my son but he was my best friend.

In the spring of 2005, we as parents felt our life was going to change dramatically within the next year as our second child was preparing to move on to the next phase in his life. Little did we know at the time how dramatically and tragically our lives would turn out and in just such a short time. d.

July 8, 2005 will be a date that will forever be etched in my mind as the tragic turning point for Matthew and us as a family. The doctors at Morristown Memorial Hospital told us that they found either leukemia or lymphoma cancer cells in his bone marrow! We were devastated and shocked! A few days later the cancer was identified as Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma T Cell or also known as Lymphoblastic Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where we went for a second opinion on the test results. We were told that Matthew needed to undergo immediate chemotherapy for 4 weeks and would eventually need a bone marrow transplant! The following five months were a nightmare beyond belief! Matthew had to stay in the hospital almost all of the five months with the exception of about 2 weeks total. This was due primarily as a result of fevers that kept recurring almost daily and the doctors weren’t sure if this was from the cancer or possible infections. During these five months, Matthew had to have his spleen removed due to its size and how diseased it was. This was a 4 hour surgery due to its size and the complexity of his illness with his liver. This was done at Mt. Sinai in NYC. He finally ended up at Memorial Sloan Kettering where he spent the last two months of his life. Throughout this whole time Matthew had been getting about 105 degree fevers almost daily, his platelet counts were under 15 for much of the time, he was getting almost daily blood and platelet transfusions. Matthew expressed his concern for us throughout this period, telling us that we had to promise him we would be alright if he didn’t make it! Imagine that, he was worried about us while he was in pain and in a febrile state almost all of the time. We told him that he was going to make it and get the BMT to save his life and he fought believing this up until the end! Matthew rarely complained about his pain or the fact that he couldn’t walk for the last two months of his life.

Matthew lost his fight on 12/7/05 as a result of a lung infection caused by a compromised immune system from the chemo treatments. Matthew’s courage convinced me and I told him this the day before he died that “he was more of a man than any man could ever be”!!!

I joined TNT as a participant last year in the spring/summer of 2007 in memory of Matthew and ran the marathon in Virginia Beach. I raised over $14,000! I actually should say that Matthew raised the money through his message of courage and heroism in the face of extreme adversity that touched the lives of many.

Finally, we must kill the disease that killed my son and best friend! We must never give up the fight! Please join me in this fight and make sure there are no other Matthews out there that have to go through this and that there are no other parents that get the life sentence that my wife and I got.

Gary Kawka (ILM of my son and hero Matthew)

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!