Help Jerry Beat Cancer

“One of our game plans coming in was to attack the basket. We thought we could shoot from the outside, but to be competitive we knew we had to drive. We knew we could put up shots and rebound.”

-Jerry Bechtold

Attack the basket; put up shots, and rebound. That’s a phrase with which many basketball players and fans are familiar. But for Jerry Bechtold, that phrase takes on new meaning as he faces the biggest win he has ever needed. A win for a chance at life.

Coach, teacher, mentor, friend – these describe the Jerry Bechtold we all know at Hebron High School and Middle School. As a staff member for 24 years, Jerry has touched countless lives of students, fellow teachers, staff, and administration.

A cancer diagnosis threatens to side-line Jerry’s wish for the future; a chance to enjoy life to the fullest. A life free from cancer.

Here is the official diagnosis from Dr. Jayesh Mehta, MD, Chez Family Professor of Myeloma Research, Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Oncology) at Northwestern University Hospital.

“Jerry has an atypical lymphoproliferative disorder with overlap features between CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) and Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia and myeloma, with a development of AL amyloidosis involved the heart.”

In plain speak, due to Jerry’s chronic lymphoma (diagnosed in 2002), an amyloid protein that tends to settle in the large organs of lymphoma patients has settled in Jerry’s heart.

Every Wednesday, Jerry travels to Northwestern Hospital in Chicago to receive chemotherapy treatments to reduce those amyloid proteins in the heart. The overall goal of these treatments is to keep the protein levels low enough – hopefully reaching zero – to enable him to undergo a stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, his doctors have told him the chemotherapy will become less effective as his body will start to resist the treatment. The timing will be important; it will be a “go” for the stem cell transplant when the protein numbers are low.

Many of you who see Jerry regularly may not have noticed a change; as one co-worker said, “He looks amazingly good. High spirits, subdued spitfire. You wouldn’t know looking at him anything was going on.”

It’s not that Jerry has been intentionally keeping his diagnosis quiet; he has shared with a few people and, of course, his family. As his friends and co-workers, we would like to help. Right now, the most significant help is financial to cover out-of-pocket expenses. His weekly travel costs, gas, lunch, tolls easily exceed $100. Once the stem cell procedure is approved, there will be additional lodging and accommodations for his family.

Let’s be Bechtold Fans and cheer him on by supporting this GoFundMe project. No amount is too small and will help ease some of the burdens he and his family currently face. But he’s staying strong and brave, keeping his sense of humor, and absolutely driving for that basket!