Leyden's Gomez winning fight vs. leukemia
By Gary Larsen
This is a story about friendship, family, community, and the strength of West Leyden senior Giselle Gomez. The story begins in March with Giselle, then a 16-year-old nearing the end of her junior year, realizing something was wrong.
“I was climbing some stairs,” she said, “and I was out of breath.”
While preparing for the girls' soccer season last school year, Giselle found herself fighting fatigue and lacking the motivation that a student taking honors classes relies upon. Her mother, Luz Elena Gomez, works at a doctor’s office and had Giselle’s hemoglobin level checked and then rechecked. The levels were very low and when she battled extreme migraine headaches, Giselle was taken to the emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital.
She was given pain medication and released and sent home that night.
Giselle had to take the SAT the next day. One of her best friends, West Leyden senior Adan Heredia, also took the test that day. He drove Giselle to the testing site. The two had become friends during the summer after their sophomore year.
“She’s just a fun person to hang out with. There was never a dull moment,” Adan said. “When you’re with her, you just feel that vibe. Her positivity is contagious.”
Giselle didn’t make it through an hour of her SAT test before suddenly leaving the testing room and not returning.
“I knew something was wrong that morning,” she said.
After he finished his SAT, Adan’s worry turned to genuine concern upon learning that Giselle had been taken back to the emergency room at Elmhurst and then transported to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Giselle remained there for 10 days with fluid on her lungs and had to undergo blood transfusions and a spinal tap.
Adan visited her in the hospital. Seeing his friend so weak, he knew the situation was serious. On the drive home, he was informed by one of Giselle’s family members that Giselle had been diagnosed with leukemia.
He was devastated.
“I zoned out during the car ride, thinking about our friendship and stuff,” Adan said. “As soon as I got home I hugged my mom, and I just started crying. I couldn’t believe it. It was so heartbreaking. Even to this day, when I think about it, I still can’t even accept it.”
West Leyden junior Lisette Tapia is also one of Giselle’s closest friends. The two met when Lisette was a freshman and Giselle was a sophomore. Lisette laughed when asked how she became friends with Giselle.
“She really liked to cheat off of me in biology. That’s how we met,” Lisette said. “She saw an innocent freshman, and she thought ‘Okay, I’ll use her’. That’s how we became friends.”
People gravitate to certain individuals and like Adan, Lisette was quickly drawn in by Giselle’s warmth and infectious positivity. Lisette noticed in the spring that her friend seemed “a bit off” and when Giselle missed a day of school, Lisette asked her if everything was all right.
“With a real straight face she said ‘No. I have leukemia,’ and my heart sank,” Lisette said, “.We kind of went through it together, but I didn’t have any words. I found out I made the cheer team that same day, and I said ‘Great’. Then I went home, and I cried.”
Giselle’s specific diagnosis is acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). ALL is diagnosed in roughly 3,000 people between the ages of 0-19 each year in the US and is the most common form of childhood cancer. It starts when a bone marrow cell develops errors in DNA and produces too many white blood cells. It essentially becomes cancer of the blood. Treatments include chemotherapy, targeted drugs and bone marrow transplantation.
Giselle began informing others of her condition. “I was just straightforward about it,” Giselle said. “I said ‘This is what’s going on and as long as you guys support me, it will all be okay.’”
Leyden senior boys’ soccer player Lalo Hernandez remembers when Giselle broke the news.
“She told me and a couple friends and we were all shocked,” Hernandez said. “I never thought one of my friends would go through something like this, and it devastated a lot of us.”
Word spread quickly at Leyden in the spring. As students, teachers, and administrators learned about Giselle’s diagnosis and offered their support and encouragement. They quickly learned that the heart of a lion can beat inside the chest of a 5-foot-3, 125-pound, now 17-year-old girl.
Battling ALL required an immediate course of chemotherapy, to which Giselle had bad reactions. She has had her difficult moments but her positivity has never relented.
“She is literally the strongest human being I know,” Lisette said. “She has days when she gets frustrated, but those days are so minimal.”
Adan is particularly grateful for Giselle’s strength.
“To be honest, I think I was more devastated by it than she was,” he said. “Even though she was the one going through it, she was helping me feel better about it.”
Athletes often get credit for toughness but Lalo knows that he has witnessed true toughness from Giselle.
“She always has a smile on her face,” Lalo said. “Even while she’s gone through this process, she’s the same person she always was. It’s amazing how strong of a person she is.”
Once Giselle and the people in her life settled into the reality of her situation, an idea formed. Adan approached Mark Valintis, head boys’ and assistant girls’ coach at Leyden, about doing something to help Giselle.
Valintis was all in.
“She’s one of the truly great kids we have at the school,” he said.
It was too late in the school year to get a viable fundraising option going in the spring but over the summer Valintis drew up a list of possible ways to raise funds and got Giselle’s approval. He addressed his players before the current boys’ soccer season began.
“I asked them if they wanted to try to do something for her, and of course every single one of them said 'Yes,'” Valintis said.
Soon after the boys’ team embarked on a crusade called "Goals 4 Gomez," a fundraising project that requested players, the coaching staff and others to donate for every goal the Eagles scored during the current soccer season. The project ultimately raised $1,000 for the Gomez family.
The Leyden cheerleading and pom teams also got involved, T-shirts were sold, and the movement quickly snowballed to include the student council, faculty and the greater Leyden community. Shirt sales raised $1,200.
A fundraiser was organized through the Unity in Community Foundation and took place at the Underpass Restaurant and Lounge on Sept. 8 in Franklin Park. Valintis’ players served food at the event.
When totals were tallied, all efforts raised a combined $4,000. Giselle could have never imagined the kind of support she and her family received.
“It’s amazing how the community cares, and the footprint you can leave in the community when you join it,” she said. “It’s great to have a lot of support, not just from the school but from the whole community.”
Giselle, whom West Leyden students chose as their Homecoming queen, said she gets her positive disposition from her mother, her father Javier Gomez and 10-year-old brother Javier, Jr. The trio have been instrumental in helping her to stay positive. Adan and Lisette have also been key sources of support.
On Nov. 26, Giselle will undergo a bone marrow transplant at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, thanks to a match from an anonymous donor.
“They checked my mom, my dad, and my brother,” Giselle said. “My mom and dad weren’t a match, but my brother was a 50 percent match. They wanted it to be a 75 percent match or more. This one is a 10-out-of-10, so it’s a perfect match for the transplant.”
Giselle will spent two months at the hospital in Milwaukee so she can be consistently monitored as she recovers. Her friends will be with her in spirit but will have to rely on texts, calls, and face-time technology to stay in touch with her.
“I’m just preparing myself to say goodbye to her for a little while,” Adan said. “She’s been really positive about it, and she’s ready to get it over with. But as positive as she is, she still needs support, and she needs a reminder that she’s not alone.”
The Northlake area that feeds into West Leyden is peopled mainly by blue-collar families. That they came together to raise $4,000 for the Gomez family thus far is a testament to what Valintis called “a tight-knit fraternity at Leyden.
“It’s pretty remarkable,” Valintis said. “When we were selling T-shirts in the first week of school, incoming freshmen who didn’t even know Giselle were coming up and buying shirts or saying ‘I only have $1 after lunch but here, I’ll give you the dollar.’ It just speaks to the kind of culture that we have at the school.”
Lalo was just happy that his team was able to help Giselle in her time of need.
“I never thought one of my friends would go through something like this,” he said. “When someone goes through it, you have to put in all your effort into comforting them and helping them to fight through it. Because it’s not easy.”
If you’d like to donate towards helping the Gomez family handle mounting medical costs, Giselle has a Go Fund Me page set up by Leyden biology teacher Jamie Litzhoff at https://www.gofundme.com/support-giselle-gomez
Donations can also be sent to Mark Valintis, in care of Leyden High School, 3400 Rose St., Franklin Park, IL 60131.
Information on bone marrow donation, can be found at bethematch.org.
By Gary Larsen
This is a story about friendship, family, community, and the strength of West Leyden senior Giselle Gomez. The story begins in March with Giselle, then a 16-year-old nearing the end of her junior year, realizing something was wrong.
“I was climbing some stairs,” she said, “and I was out of breath.”
While preparing for the girls' soccer season last school year, Giselle found herself fighting fatigue and lacking the motivation that a student taking honors classes relies upon. Her mother, Luz Elena Gomez, works at a doctor’s office and had Giselle’s hemoglobin level checked and then rechecked. The levels were very low and when she battled extreme migraine headaches, Giselle was taken to the emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital.
She was given pain medication and released and sent home that night.
Giselle had to take the SAT the next day. One of her best friends, West Leyden senior Adan Heredia, also took the test that day. He drove Giselle to the testing site. The two had become friends during the summer after their sophomore year.
“She’s just a fun person to hang out with. There was never a dull moment,” Adan said. “When you’re with her, you just feel that vibe. Her positivity is contagious.”
Giselle didn’t make it through an hour of her SAT test before suddenly leaving the testing room and not returning.
“I knew something was wrong that morning,” she said.
After he finished his SAT, Adan’s worry turned to genuine concern upon learning that Giselle had been taken back to the emergency room at Elmhurst and then transported to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Giselle remained there for 10 days with fluid on her lungs and had to undergo blood transfusions and a spinal tap.
Adan visited her in the hospital. Seeing his friend so weak, he knew the situation was serious. On the drive home, he was informed by one of Giselle’s family members that Giselle had been diagnosed with leukemia.
He was devastated.
“I zoned out during the car ride, thinking about our friendship and stuff,” Adan said. “As soon as I got home I hugged my mom, and I just started crying. I couldn’t believe it. It was so heartbreaking. Even to this day, when I think about it, I still can’t even accept it.”
West Leyden junior Lisette Tapia is also one of Giselle’s closest friends. The two met when Lisette was a freshman and Giselle was a sophomore. Lisette laughed when asked how she became friends with Giselle.
“She really liked to cheat off of me in biology. That’s how we met,” Lisette said. “She saw an innocent freshman, and she thought ‘Okay, I’ll use her’. That’s how we became friends.”
People gravitate to certain individuals and like Adan, Lisette was quickly drawn in by Giselle’s warmth and infectious positivity. Lisette noticed in the spring that her friend seemed “a bit off” and when Giselle missed a day of school, Lisette asked her if everything was all right.
“With a real straight face she said ‘No. I have leukemia,’ and my heart sank,” Lisette said, “.We kind of went through it together, but I didn’t have any words. I found out I made the cheer team that same day, and I said ‘Great’. Then I went home, and I cried.”
Giselle’s specific diagnosis is acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). ALL is diagnosed in roughly 3,000 people between the ages of 0-19 each year in the US and is the most common form of childhood cancer. It starts when a bone marrow cell develops errors in DNA and produces too many white blood cells. It essentially becomes cancer of the blood. Treatments include chemotherapy, targeted drugs and bone marrow transplantation.
Giselle began informing others of her condition. “I was just straightforward about it,” Giselle said. “I said ‘This is what’s going on and as long as you guys support me, it will all be okay.’”
Leyden senior boys’ soccer player Lalo Hernandez remembers when Giselle broke the news.
“She told me and a couple friends and we were all shocked,” Hernandez said. “I never thought one of my friends would go through something like this, and it devastated a lot of us.”
Word spread quickly at Leyden in the spring. As students, teachers, and administrators learned about Giselle’s diagnosis and offered their support and encouragement. They quickly learned that the heart of a lion can beat inside the chest of a 5-foot-3, 125-pound, now 17-year-old girl.
Battling ALL required an immediate course of chemotherapy, to which Giselle had bad reactions. She has had her difficult moments but her positivity has never relented.
“She is literally the strongest human being I know,” Lisette said. “She has days when she gets frustrated, but those days are so minimal.”
Adan is particularly grateful for Giselle’s strength.
“To be honest, I think I was more devastated by it than she was,” he said. “Even though she was the one going through it, she was helping me feel better about it.”
Athletes often get credit for toughness but Lalo knows that he has witnessed true toughness from Giselle.
“She always has a smile on her face,” Lalo said. “Even while she’s gone through this process, she’s the same person she always was. It’s amazing how strong of a person she is.”
Once Giselle and the people in her life settled into the reality of her situation, an idea formed. Adan approached Mark Valintis, head boys’ and assistant girls’ coach at Leyden, about doing something to help Giselle.
Valintis was all in.
“She’s one of the truly great kids we have at the school,” he said.
It was too late in the school year to get a viable fundraising option going in the spring but over the summer Valintis drew up a list of possible ways to raise funds and got Giselle’s approval. He addressed his players before the current boys’ soccer season began.
“I asked them if they wanted to try to do something for her, and of course every single one of them said 'Yes,'” Valintis said.
Soon after the boys’ team embarked on a crusade called "Goals 4 Gomez," a fundraising project that requested players, the coaching staff and others to donate for every goal the Eagles scored during the current soccer season. The project ultimately raised $1,000 for the Gomez family.
The Leyden cheerleading and pom teams also got involved, T-shirts were sold, and the movement quickly snowballed to include the student council, faculty and the greater Leyden community. Shirt sales raised $1,200.
A fundraiser was organized through the Unity in Community Foundation and took place at the Underpass Restaurant and Lounge on Sept. 8 in Franklin Park. Valintis’ players served food at the event.
When totals were tallied, all efforts raised a combined $4,000. Giselle could have never imagined the kind of support she and her family received.
“It’s amazing how the community cares, and the footprint you can leave in the community when you join it,” she said. “It’s great to have a lot of support, not just from the school but from the whole community.”
Giselle, whom West Leyden students chose as their Homecoming queen, said she gets her positive disposition from her mother, her father Javier Gomez and 10-year-old brother Javier, Jr. The trio have been instrumental in helping her to stay positive. Adan and Lisette have also been key sources of support.
On Nov. 26, Giselle will undergo a bone marrow transplant at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, thanks to a match from an anonymous donor.
“They checked my mom, my dad, and my brother,” Giselle said. “My mom and dad weren’t a match, but my brother was a 50 percent match. They wanted it to be a 75 percent match or more. This one is a 10-out-of-10, so it’s a perfect match for the transplant.”
Giselle will spent two months at the hospital in Milwaukee so she can be consistently monitored as she recovers. Her friends will be with her in spirit but will have to rely on texts, calls, and face-time technology to stay in touch with her.
“I’m just preparing myself to say goodbye to her for a little while,” Adan said. “She’s been really positive about it, and she’s ready to get it over with. But as positive as she is, she still needs support, and she needs a reminder that she’s not alone.”
The Northlake area that feeds into West Leyden is peopled mainly by blue-collar families. That they came together to raise $4,000 for the Gomez family thus far is a testament to what Valintis called “a tight-knit fraternity at Leyden.
“It’s pretty remarkable,” Valintis said. “When we were selling T-shirts in the first week of school, incoming freshmen who didn’t even know Giselle were coming up and buying shirts or saying ‘I only have $1 after lunch but here, I’ll give you the dollar.’ It just speaks to the kind of culture that we have at the school.”
Lalo was just happy that his team was able to help Giselle in her time of need.
“I never thought one of my friends would go through something like this,” he said. “When someone goes through it, you have to put in all your effort into comforting them and helping them to fight through it. Because it’s not easy.”
If you’d like to donate towards helping the Gomez family handle mounting medical costs, Giselle has a Go Fund Me page set up by Leyden biology teacher Jamie Litzhoff at https://www.gofundme.com/support-giselle-gomez
Donations can also be sent to Mark Valintis, in care of Leyden High School, 3400 Rose St., Franklin Park, IL 60131.
Information on bone marrow donation, can be found at bethematch.org.