Family's cause remains cancer

DEXTER — One of Katy E. Nortz's favorite shirts is the one that says, "Fight like a girl." At the age of 10, she's been there, done that, with nothing less than her life at stake.

Katy is a cancer survivor. In 2007, after a five-year fight, doctors told her parents, Brian J. and Tricia L. Nortz, that their daughter has about the same chances as any other child for developing cancer.

Now, after a tussle with an illness that took its toll — including removal of a football-size tumor and a kidney — Katy is free to dream big.

Last week, as she relaxed on the couch in her Route 12E home next to her parents and brother, Nicholas J., she was asked what she wanted to be when she grows up.

"A fashion designer," she said. "I want to help people who have cancer, so they look better and maybe not be embarrassed."

Helping people runs in the family. Brian and Tricia Nortz were involved in raising money to fight cancer even before their daughter's diagnosis. Mr. Nortz, a history teacher and basketball coach at General Brown Central High School, was active in Coaches vs. Cancer. Both also supported the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

But the gloves came off after Katy's diagnosis. Cancer became personal.

"It became more real after our experience," Mrs. Nortz said.

"It hit home," her husband said. "It's like, 'Wow. You can never imagine losing your child.' But we went through that. Relay for Life has become much more emotional."

In 2005, the Nortzes, with the help of friend Michelle Lamon, created the Relay for Life team General Brown and Friends. The team has raised more than $50,000 for the American Cancer Society since its formation.

Katy is this year's honorary chairperson for the Jefferson County Relay for Life.

"For this year, we'll be well over $10,000 raised," Mr. Nortz said.

General Brown and Friends hosts popular annual fundraisers such as varsity boys and girls basketball games between General Brown and Thousand Islands high schools and dodge ball tournaments. A golf tournament at Cold Springs Golf Course in Mannsville also is popular as are sales of the cancer-fighting-themed T-shirts the team sells, such the "Fight like a girl" shirts.

"Our team is the best," Mr. Nortz said. "They'll do anything you ask."

General Brown and Friends will be one of the dozens of teams represented June 11 and 12 when the main Relay for Life event is held at Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds, Coffeen Street, Watertown. The event has three goals: that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported and the sharing of hopes that cancer will be defeated.

The event is also a celebration, the Nortzes said, with entertainment, booths, food and a general festive atmosphere.

"It's everything good about the north country," Mr. Nortz said. "When somebody's chips are down in the north country, there's always someone there."

"To me, the one thing that chokes me up is the survivors lap," said Mr. Nortz, who got choked up just talking about it. "They form a human chain and they walk a lap. It's very, very emotional. A lot of people you may not have known who survived cancer are in it. Katy did it our first year in 2005."

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Katy's cancer story began in 2002 when the family was returning from a vacation in New Hampshire and looking forward to getting back into their routines.

"On the way home, Katy started not to feel well," said Mrs. Nortz, a first-grade teacher at Dexter Elementary School. "She had a fever, was crying and was not happy at all."

In Watertown, she was taken to her pediatrician's office five times over the span of six days. Doctors at first thought it was a "summer virus." At another point, she was diagnosed with pneumonia.

"That made us kind of happy," Mr. Nortz said.

But it was neither of those. A doctor later informed them he thought Katy had a Wilms' tumor.

"We didn't know what that was," Mrs. Nortz said.

"I distinctly remember asking him, 'Is it cancer?'" Mr. Nortz said, and getting the answer: A Wilms' tumor is a rare type of kidney cancer that occurs in children.

"Within the hour, Katy and Tish were in an ambulance and I was following behind them at 8 o'clock at night," Mr. Nortz said.

They were on their way to Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, where Katy spent the next 15 days. She turned 3 while she was there.

The cancer was at stage three out of five stages.

"Stage four and five are pretty bleak," Mr. Nortz said. "But three kept you teeter-tottering whether it would be more serious."

After chemotherapy treatments, Katy had surgery late that September. The large tumor had wrapped around one of her kidneys. More chemotherapy and radiation therapies followed the surgery.

"She had to have her whole kidney removed," Mrs. Nortz said. "It was shot. There was nothing left to it."

Her appendix and some lymph nodes also were removed as precautions.

Even with the good news received in 2007 that her cancer was cured, she said Katy still must go to Upstate for yearly tests.

That's where the Nortzes have a "reality check" and get inspiration to continue their Relay for Life fundraising.

"We sit in the same room where we did before where she had chemo," Mrs. Nortz said. "You see the other kids with no hair and you realize not everybody is going to make it."

The Nortzes said they received tremendous support during Katy's illness and not only from the American Cancer Society. The Make-A-Wish Foundation gave the family a trip to Disney World in Florida.

Katy's and Nicholas's eyes light up when they talk about the trip. They even had ice cream for breakfast.

"I have a star with my name on it in the Make-A-Wish Castle," Katy said.

But her parents say the real stars are groups like Relay for Life and Make-A-Wish Foundation for providing support to cancer patients.

Those who want to support the General Brown and Friends Relay for Life team can send checks to the team in care of Mr. Nortz at General Brown High School, P.O. Box 500, Dexter, NY 13634.

"They can address it to General Brown and Friends," Mr. Nortz said. "It'll get to me. One of our secretaries in the main office is also a cancer survivor. As I said, it effects everybody."