WINNING a gold science fair medal is an accomplishment, but one that usually just makes you, your teachers and your parents proud.
Andrew Nichols, 14, took things a bit further. The Grade 8 Brandon student researched the effects of different chemotherapy drugs on blood cells, a project he based on his own battle with cancer.
"I think I chose it because a lot of my friends and stuff were curious about what was going on with me and stuff," says the young hockey player.
Today, Andrew, along with other science fair winners, will be recognized at a Canadian Cancer Society event where they'll be declared "researchers of tomorrow."
On Saturday, Andrew and his dad are supposed to travel to Quebec for the Canada-Wide Science Fair. That trip is in jeopardy because the teen is back in Children's Hospital.
His science fair project began, in essence, when he was diagnosed with leukemia in October 2004. The active, sports-loving boy was stricken almost overnight.
"He scored the opening goal in a hockey game on a Friday night and by Tuesday he was in intensive care in Winnipeg," says his mom, Joanne. "They were telling us to call the family."
His cancer is in remission, but he will remain on treatment for four-and-a-half years. He still takes daily chemo pills and travels to Winnipeg once a month for treatment. Two central lines remained in his heart until yesterday.
A bacterial infection in one line landed him in hospital, required surgery and has put Andrew on a course of antibiotics.
This is not the biggest challenge he has faced.
"His (initial) treatment was pretty intense," says Joanne, who says her son has fought to regain his normal life. "He wants that so desperately that he wears himself out."
Andrew is back playing hockey, but had to play on a house league, much to his chagrin.
"As parents, we had to say, 'You're not in a wheelchair, you're not in a hospital bed,' but it's hard for him. He'd like things to be back the way they were."
In an e-mail to an organizer of today's event, Joanne Nichols confesses the lengths to which her son will go to play hockey:
"Sometimes when Andrew has to take Prednisone and Vincristine at the same time his bones and joints hurt so much. Sometimes he can't eat because of the jaw pain, can't lift his arms and he cries out in pain with leg cramps during the night," she writes. "This fall, while taking this plan he asked his doctors if he could take morphine so he could skate! He did, he skated, his coach put the garbage can beside him so he could be sick. Andrew suffered for days after. But he was happy!"
This is one tough kid.
The science fair project detailed the four major types of leukemia, looked at treatments and explained the process of chemotherapy. Reading his project notes, it's impossible to remain distant from Andrew's personal experience.
"Side-effects may be acute, chronic or permanent," he writes. "Side-effects may cause inconvenience, discomfort and even death."
Essentially, Andrew performed his experiment on himself, monitoring his blood counts before, during and after receiving 12 different chemotherapy agents. He lists the steps of his experiment: diagnosed with leukemia; received chemotherapy agent; had blood tests; charted chemotherapy agent used; recorded blood results; studied different chemotherapy agents; reviewed the blood results; graphed blood results; concluded experiment.
Of course, Andrew won't really conclude his experiment for another two years, when he's finished his course of treatment. This is more than a science fair project. It's a means of making sense of the illness that has robbed him of so much.
"He's got really terrific friends that were devastated," his mom explains. "He wanted to explain this to them. It's sometimes even hard for the teachers to understand. His hair comes back, he looks healthier."
I ask Andrew if his research had sparked an interest in medicine or if he might want to go into cancer research. He pauses and speaks slowly.
"I've thought about it," he says as his voice starts to tremble. "I think it would be really hard. It would bring back memories."
He's a gold-medal winner, a researcher of tomorrow, a hockey player and one tough kid. But really, Andrew Nichols is a 14-year-old kid battling a terrible illness with all the guts he can manage.
That's the real reason he deserves a gold medal.
lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca
PHOTO KEN GIGLIOTTI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
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