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McCarthy: RSL Player's Wife Battles Rare Cancer
In this week's Monday MLS Breakdown, Goal.com's Kyle McCarthy talks with Real Salt Lake midfielder Andy Williams about the leukemia that has stricken his wife, Marcia, and how you can help.
Jan 26, 2009 9:10:51 AM
By Kyle McCarthy
In the 2008 Real Salt Lake media guide, Andy Williams lists his most memorable moment as “seeing my wife for the first time,” his favorite hobby as “spending time with family,” and his favorite meal as “wife's cooking.”
Marcia Williams is Andy's wife. There's a good chance her media biography would likely say many of the same things about Andy that he says about her. One friend says Andy and Marcia (pronounced mar-CEE-ah) are one of those couples that restore a person's faith in marriage, a couple so totally and completely in love that their feelings for each other are etched on their faces every time they see one another.
So with that in mind, imagine the emotions etched on their faces when Marcia learned she had a rare form of leukemia last July. Imagine the emotions etched on their faces as Marcia went through six bone-marrow biopsies, the last of which turned up a rare abnormality that will make her leukemia harder to cure. Imagine the emotions etched on their faces next week when Marcia starts a round of chemotherapy treatments. Imagine the emotions etched on their faces as the series of painful treatments continues for 45 days with the knowledge that chemotherapy alone likely won't be enough.
“It's been difficult,” Andy told me on Sunday by phone. “When she's happy, it's easier for me to be happy. We're trying to enjoy each day as it comes. If we pray hard enough, I think it will help.”
Andy was speaking from the Grace Community Bible Church in Sandy, Utah, where more than 200 people had assembled in support of the Williamses. They had come to have their bone marrow tested because two weeks after the chemotherapy treatments end, Marcia will need a bone-marrow transplant to help restore her ravaged immune system. This will give her the best chance of survival, but there is no match in the national database at this time because Marcia has a difficult-to-match tissue type. Without the transplant, Marcia will have to rely on cord blood—blood harvested from umbilical cords and placentas—and another, riskier procedure with a higher exposure to life-threatening infection and a murkier long-term prognosis.
“She's hanging in there,” Andy said. “It's getting down to crunch time. Hopefully, we'll find a match.”
Marcia and Andy need help to find the marrow that will give Marcia a better chance of survival. Thankfully, they aren't fighting this battle alone and their allies won't give up until they find a match.
“I don't think words can explain how we feel,” Andy said. “We're privileged to get the support. If it doesn't work out for us, hopefully it'll work out for someone else.”
If finding a bone-marrow match was based on the level of support from a community, the Williamses would have found the match they needed a day after the initial diagnosis.
The crux of the support comes from Soccer Unites Utah. Deb Harper is its protagonist, a RSL season-ticket holder who has turned her work with Leo's Pride, RSL's charitable arm, into a separate charity with national reach within the soccer community.
Soccer Unites Utah has brought former teammates and MLS colleagues, the RSL organization and many in the Utah community together to help find a marrow match and defray the costs from co-payments and other ancillary expenses not covered by medical insurance. From golf tournaments to casino nights to jersey auctions, Soccer Unites has tried everything and anything to help raise awareness for Marcia's situation.
“We are just desperate to find a match at this point,” Harper told me in a phone interview.
The sheer depth and breadth of contributions is staggering. Ten-year-old Evan Mundine and his mother in Texas have raised over $1,000 to help Williams, who always had time to sign an autograph or two when he was in town. An anonymous donor in Louisiana sent a $5,000 donation and wouldn't share his name when Soccer Unites wanted to send him a thank you letter. A group at Eastern Illinois University held a bone-marrow drive. Countless volunteers spend their free time setting up events and local businesses donate funds to help keeping the charity up and running.
“We can't put into words what this entire community has done,” Andy said. “That's not just here in Utah. One of the first teams to come out and help us was the Rapids. They are one of their main rivals.”
Former Rapid and RSL midfielder Seth Trembly set up an auction to raise money in Colorado. Trembly is just one of a host of former RSL teammates rallying to the Willamses' side. Jordan Cila put a fundraiser together with the Red Bulls in New York. Chris Brown and Cameron Knowles are planning to hold a bone-marrow drive soon in Portland. Scott Garlick is involved in setting up a bone-marrow drive in Tampa, while Carey Talley and his wife are in the planning stages in California. Former Fusion teammate Pablo Mastroeni contributed one of his World Cup jerseys for an auction, while Chivas USA and FC Dallas also supplied kits for auctions.
“It's been the neatest thing to see these guys rally around Andy,” Harper said, noting that some of those from around MLS and U.S. Soccer who have helped weren't even players Williams knew all that well.
All of those contributions from former RSL players are indicative of the substantial support the Williamses have received from the RSL organization. Williams was technically RSL’s first player on the books, and the club has acted as a surrogate family of sorts for him.
“RSL has been amazing and supportive,” Harper said. “It comes from the top down with Dave Checketts.”
RSL investor/operator Checketts pledged $10,000 and Harper said Checketts gave copies of a New York Times profile of the Williamses and donations to Soccer Unites as Christmas gifts. Head coach Jason Kreis and his wife, Kim, a local photographer, sit on the Soccer Unites board. Assistant coaches Brian Johnson and Jeff Cassar are involved as well; Jeff's wife, Jennifer, is compiling a cookbook to sell to help raise money. The club has held multiple bone-marrow drives and will hold another on January 29 at Rio Tinto Stadium. Every player invited to training camp will have their mouth swabbed that day to see if their marrow matches.
That training camp will continue while Marcia is undergoing chemotherapy. Andy will be with his teammates, preparing for the new season in Oxnard, California, Tampa, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina, and flying back and forth to visit Marcia during the most critical times of the treatment—all with the coaching staff's consent. Friends will take turns minding daughters Shai-Ann and Lexi and visiting Marcia in a Utah hospital.
As the chemotherapy takes place, the search to find the elusive bone marrow match will intensify. Harper is hopeful that drives in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale will yield potential donors because of the higher Jamaican and Caribbean populations in those areas. The matches don't have to be in the same ethnicity—Harper says the closest match so far came from a Caucasian—but similar backgrounds make a match far more likely and ethnic donors are considerably harder to find, according to the National Marrow Donor Program.
For those who want to join the effort and can't make a Soccer Unites marrow drive, there are local drives across the country on a daily basis affiliated with the NMDP (a typing fee may apply in some instances). DKMS America is running the bone marrow drives for Marcia and isn't charging a typing fee. A cheek swab and some paperwork are the primary requirements for those between the eligible ages of 18 and 55. Anyone unable attend a donor drive in person can e-mail info@dkmsamericas.org or call (866) 340-DKMS to have a self-test kit mailed to their home. Any screening donation received by either the NMDP or DKMS will be submitted directly into the national database for Marcia and anyone else who might need the marrow for their own cancer fight. For those who can't donate marrow, t-shirts are on sale for a $15 donation.
Harper said Andy and Marcia keep talking about the day when Marcia's fight is over. They want keep Soccer Unites alive to help others in need by showing them the support they were given, Harper said.
“There's always hope,” Andy said.
That persistent hope believes this effort will soon lead to Marcia's victory over leukemia. Perhaps her story will be included in Andy's biography in a future version of the RSL media guide. Right alongside her cooking and the memory of love at first sight.
Kyle McCarthy writes the Monday MLS Breakdown and frequently writes opinion pieces during the week for Goal.com. Contact him with your questions or comments at kylemccarthy@gmail.com.
In the 2008 Real Salt Lake media guide, Andy Williams lists his most memorable moment as “seeing my wife for the first time,” his favorite hobby as “spending time with family,” and his favorite meal as “wife's cooking.”
Marcia Williams is Andy's wife. There's a good chance her media biography would likely say many of the same things about Andy that he says about her. One friend says Andy and Marcia (pronounced mar-CEE-ah) are one of those couples that restore a person's faith in marriage, a couple so totally and completely in love that their feelings for each other are etched on their faces every time they see one another.
So with that in mind, imagine the emotions etched on their faces when Marcia learned she had a rare form of leukemia last July. Imagine the emotions etched on their faces as Marcia went through six bone-marrow biopsies, the last of which turned up a rare abnormality that will make her leukemia harder to cure. Imagine the emotions etched on their faces next week when Marcia starts a round of chemotherapy treatments. Imagine the emotions etched on their faces as the series of painful treatments continues for 45 days with the knowledge that chemotherapy alone likely won't be enough.
“It's been difficult,” Andy told me on Sunday by phone. “When she's happy, it's easier for me to be happy. We're trying to enjoy each day as it comes. If we pray hard enough, I think it will help.”
Andy was speaking from the Grace Community Bible Church in Sandy, Utah, where more than 200 people had assembled in support of the Williamses. They had come to have their bone marrow tested because two weeks after the chemotherapy treatments end, Marcia will need a bone-marrow transplant to help restore her ravaged immune system. This will give her the best chance of survival, but there is no match in the national database at this time because Marcia has a difficult-to-match tissue type. Without the transplant, Marcia will have to rely on cord blood—blood harvested from umbilical cords and placentas—and another, riskier procedure with a higher exposure to life-threatening infection and a murkier long-term prognosis.
“She's hanging in there,” Andy said. “It's getting down to crunch time. Hopefully, we'll find a match.”
Marcia and Andy need help to find the marrow that will give Marcia a better chance of survival. Thankfully, they aren't fighting this battle alone and their allies won't give up until they find a match.
“I don't think words can explain how we feel,” Andy said. “We're privileged to get the support. If it doesn't work out for us, hopefully it'll work out for someone else.”
If finding a bone-marrow match was based on the level of support from a community, the Williamses would have found the match they needed a day after the initial diagnosis.
The crux of the support comes from Soccer Unites Utah. Deb Harper is its protagonist, a RSL season-ticket holder who has turned her work with Leo's Pride, RSL's charitable arm, into a separate charity with national reach within the soccer community.
Soccer Unites Utah has brought former teammates and MLS colleagues, the RSL organization and many in the Utah community together to help find a marrow match and defray the costs from co-payments and other ancillary expenses not covered by medical insurance. From golf tournaments to casino nights to jersey auctions, Soccer Unites has tried everything and anything to help raise awareness for Marcia's situation.
“We are just desperate to find a match at this point,” Harper told me in a phone interview.
The sheer depth and breadth of contributions is staggering. Ten-year-old Evan Mundine and his mother in Texas have raised over $1,000 to help Williams, who always had time to sign an autograph or two when he was in town. An anonymous donor in Louisiana sent a $5,000 donation and wouldn't share his name when Soccer Unites wanted to send him a thank you letter. A group at Eastern Illinois University held a bone-marrow drive. Countless volunteers spend their free time setting up events and local businesses donate funds to help keeping the charity up and running.
“We can't put into words what this entire community has done,” Andy said. “That's not just here in Utah. One of the first teams to come out and help us was the Rapids. They are one of their main rivals.”
Former Rapid and RSL midfielder Seth Trembly set up an auction to raise money in Colorado. Trembly is just one of a host of former RSL teammates rallying to the Willamses' side. Jordan Cila put a fundraiser together with the Red Bulls in New York. Chris Brown and Cameron Knowles are planning to hold a bone-marrow drive soon in Portland. Scott Garlick is involved in setting up a bone-marrow drive in Tampa, while Carey Talley and his wife are in the planning stages in California. Former Fusion teammate Pablo Mastroeni contributed one of his World Cup jerseys for an auction, while Chivas USA and FC Dallas also supplied kits for auctions.
“It's been the neatest thing to see these guys rally around Andy,” Harper said, noting that some of those from around MLS and U.S. Soccer who have helped weren't even players Williams knew all that well.
All of those contributions from former RSL players are indicative of the substantial support the Williamses have received from the RSL organization. Williams was technically RSL’s first player on the books, and the club has acted as a surrogate family of sorts for him.
“RSL has been amazing and supportive,” Harper said. “It comes from the top down with Dave Checketts.”
RSL investor/operator Checketts pledged $10,000 and Harper said Checketts gave copies of a New York Times profile of the Williamses and donations to Soccer Unites as Christmas gifts. Head coach Jason Kreis and his wife, Kim, a local photographer, sit on the Soccer Unites board. Assistant coaches Brian Johnson and Jeff Cassar are involved as well; Jeff's wife, Jennifer, is compiling a cookbook to sell to help raise money. The club has held multiple bone-marrow drives and will hold another on January 29 at Rio Tinto Stadium. Every player invited to training camp will have their mouth swabbed that day to see if their marrow matches.
That training camp will continue while Marcia is undergoing chemotherapy. Andy will be with his teammates, preparing for the new season in Oxnard, California, Tampa, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina, and flying back and forth to visit Marcia during the most critical times of the treatment—all with the coaching staff's consent. Friends will take turns minding daughters Shai-Ann and Lexi and visiting Marcia in a Utah hospital.
As the chemotherapy takes place, the search to find the elusive bone marrow match will intensify. Harper is hopeful that drives in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale will yield potential donors because of the higher Jamaican and Caribbean populations in those areas. The matches don't have to be in the same ethnicity—Harper says the closest match so far came from a Caucasian—but similar backgrounds make a match far more likely and ethnic donors are considerably harder to find, according to the National Marrow Donor Program.
For those who want to join the effort and can't make a Soccer Unites marrow drive, there are local drives across the country on a daily basis affiliated with the NMDP (a typing fee may apply in some instances). DKMS America is running the bone marrow drives for Marcia and isn't charging a typing fee. A cheek swab and some paperwork are the primary requirements for those between the eligible ages of 18 and 55. Anyone unable attend a donor drive in person can e-mail info@dkmsamericas.org or call (866) 340-DKMS to have a self-test kit mailed to their home. Any screening donation received by either the NMDP or DKMS will be submitted directly into the national database for Marcia and anyone else who might need the marrow for their own cancer fight. For those who can't donate marrow, t-shirts are on sale for a $15 donation.
Harper said Andy and Marcia keep talking about the day when Marcia's fight is over. They want keep Soccer Unites alive to help others in need by showing them the support they were given, Harper said.
“There's always hope,” Andy said.
That persistent hope believes this effort will soon lead to Marcia's victory over leukemia. Perhaps her story will be included in Andy's biography in a future version of the RSL media guide. Right alongside her cooking and the memory of love at first sight.
Kyle McCarthy writes the Monday MLS Breakdown and frequently writes opinion pieces during the week for Goal.com. Contact him with your questions or comments at kylemccarthy@gmail.com.
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