Same Ride - New Hero - New Goal....

FY 2011 - $10K <-- I need your help!

Zack Kauflin: A fighter, a dedicated heart, and my motivation to ride Tahoe 2011

Zack's story...it's a GREAT one folks:

After a successful football career at Farmington High School, Zack jumped at the chance to walk-on to the defensive asset team of the Mizzou football, where he was named defensive scout team player of the week twice and in 2003, was named defensive scout team MVP in preparation for the game against Kansas.

During finals week of the spring 2004 semester, Zack was working out in front of a mirror when he noticed a strange lump on his neck. He dismissed the lump as a swollen lymph node, but when he still noticed the lump a week and a half later, Kauflin decided to have it checked out. A biopsy was scheduled for June 16, 2004; two days later he was diagnosed with Burkitt’s-Lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. By the end of the following week, Zack was admitted to the hospital where he began treatment.

Tubes were inserted into Zack’s chest in preparation for the aggressive chemotherapy treatment he would receive. Despite Zack’s confidence in overcoming this hardship, the nurses were skeptical of his recovery ability given his high dose of chemotherapy. However, after a week of treatment, the nurses caught Zack doing push-ups on the floor of his room!

This is the amazing part....Zach was so ambitious to maintain his normal life with school and football during his 7 weeks of chemo treatment, that he carefully arranged his schedule so that he could attend his Chemical Quantitative Analysis, Physics and Accounting classes in Columbia on Monday and Tuesday; drive to St. Louis and begin chemotherapy treatment early Wednesday morning; finish the chemotherapy treatment early the next Monday morning; and drive back to Columbia in time to attend class. While in Columbia, Kauflin also continued to attend football practice and cheer on his teammates. How DEDICATED is THAT??!?!

October 31, 2004, was Zack's last day of chemotherapy. He began practicing with the team just two weeks later and began balancing local radiation treatments on his brain with school work and football practice. Zack said that the radiation treatment didn't affect him but that it did take a toll on his short-term memory.

Zack is now in FULL REMISSION and has since graduated with a degree in chemistry, and has found personal success in pharmaceutical sales, in the orthopedic department. He is still determined, ambitious, and is an all around amazing guy, moving forward and attacking new challenges as they come his way.

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I have been blessed with the chance to give back after my surviving ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia) at the age of 3. So here I am to fulfill my ANNUAL mission:

bike 100 miles around lake Tahoe to raise $$ for blood cancer research!!!!!

THANK YOU for all of your DONATIONS and SUPPORT!

GO TEAM!

Taylor

(Zack's story edited from Mizzou Senior Feature Story by Emily Allen, Missouri Media Relations Student Assistant, 2006)