ASU grad shares gift of life with others

There were six seconds of silence.

Joe Cajic was reliving the most difficult part of life with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia.

It wasn't the 187,000 white blood cells collapsing his body. It wasn't going through millions of people on the bone marrow registry list who weren't matches. It wasn't the 30 percent chance to live when a bone marrow donor was found. It wasn't seven IV bags stuck in him at once, the hair or 100 pounds he lost. It wasn't being strapped to a table while vomiting to get the bone marrow removed from his body. It wasn't being the only person his doctor ever knew who survived the subsequent heart infection during the transplant (paracarditis). And it wasn't the 20 pills per day at $15 to $25 per prescription.

It was Dec. 30, 1997.

Cajic, a former Phoenix Shadow Mountain track and field champion and Arizona State offensive lineman, suffered intense heartburn daily after graduating from ASU. He kept carbonated water and pills in his car for the daily commute to work at a building supply company. Tests on Christmas Eve revealed leukemia was likely. He kept it quiet, away from family and friends during the holidays, but he had to go back before New Year's.

He had no choice but to ask his father to take him back to the hospital.

"It's the hardest thing in the world I've done," he said of that meeting. "Harder than the transplant. Harder than anything. It hurts to talk about."

His voice quivered and, in a rare moment, went silent. Cajic can't cry anymore. His tear ducts no longer work because of radiation's side effects.

He gathered himself, and then the jokes and stories about life free-flowed.

When ASU plays USC on Nov. 4, it will be 10 years since Paul Truskey - a man from Chicago, where they once met to share an affection for chicken wings and Guinness - saved Joe's life with his bone marrow.

Cajic spent Y2K in the hospital. "Not the place you wanted to be," he said.

"I thought I wasn't going to make it, so it became a choice of me sulking the rest of my life in a bed or being proactive. It was 'How do I want to end my life?' That's when it started happening."

Ever since, Cajic has honored his own life, a father figure in former coach Bruce Snyder, and anyone with current or past ASU ties who needs blood, bone marrow or financial assistance. SaveJOE, a public, nonprofit organization founded by Cajic, Todd Hanley and JP Patchett, was born: www.sundevilfamily.org.

It started in 1998 as a simple golf tournament to raise money for Cajic's medical and life expenses. Since then, it has grown into Sun Devil Family Charities with nearly 40 volunteers (Cajic spends nearly 40 hours per week volunteering outside his regular job as a financial planner). There have also been pool tournaments, ASU football tailgates, pregame blood drives and football game-viewing parties in movie theaters.

Their latest causes are twofold. For a couple of years, the organization has tried to help former college classmate Ebony Kelly, an ASU graduate who was diagnosed with a chronic muscular disease (Polymyositis) in 2003.

And a couple of weeks ago, Cajic was discovered on Facebook by parents who were ASU graduates dealing with their 3-year-old who was recently diagnosed with leukemia. The care has forced the mother to leave her job as breadwinner of the family.

"That's one thing amazing of Joe," said Hanley, who works with the Phoenix Police Department and as a football assistant at Chandler Seton Catholic. "I mean, that guy and a cause, he'll find a way to help and fix everything."

SDFC will be tailgating in the parking lot before every ASU football game. They'll hold a viewing party of the ASU-Georgia game Sept. 26 on movie screens at the Mill Avenue District Community Arts Project theater. There's also a postgame - "post-victory" according to Cajic - party after the ASU/Arizona game.

Cajic has no complaints about life. He makes a good living - he could have a Squaw Peak viewing party from his Phoenix condo if he wanted. He works Monday through Thursday mostly traveling around the Western United States as a financial consultant, and devotes time to charities during evenings and weekends.

A few parts of his body's skeleton are permanently altered from the chemo, and a hole in his chest had to be cut open to drain liquid during his bout with paracarditis. His rib cage didn't heal properly, which has meant his ribs and spine occasionally won't move together in unison. It causes extraordinary pain for about 24 hours, and he'll leave work early and go home "where every breath felt like bones were going to break."

But they don't anymore. Cajic felt he got a "one-in-10-million" freebie on life, and wants to spend the rest of his days paying it forward.

"Maybe it's 1-2 per year, but hopefully we'll grow," Hanley said of the people they can help. "That's what made this unique in my eyes was a common thread (ASU), and if you knew Joe you wanted to help him because you know he'd do the same for you."

Sun Devil Family Charities upcoming events (all events open to public)

Aug. 20: Golf tournament, Las Colinas Golf Club, Queen Creek

Sept. 5, Sept. 19, Oct. 3, Oct. 17, Oct. 31, Nov. 7, Nov. 28: Tailgate parties held outside Sun Devil Stadium

Sept. 26: "The Devils Went Down to Georgia" ASU-Georgia viewing party on movie theater screens at the Mill Avenue District Community Arts Project

Nov. 28: ASU/UA postgame party TBD

For more information, go to www.sundevilfamily.org.