2 Youths Who Battled Cancer Are Winners Indeed

Cristina Katz of Anaheim was one of those chosen last year to represent her school, Valencia High, in The Times’ annual “Salute to Seniors.” And with good reason: She played on the volleyball team, the basketball team (captain for two years). She was president of her sophomore and junior classes. Her senior year she was student body president. As if that weren’t honor enough, she was an A student and played in the school band.

Add to that, Cristina, now at Fullerton College, spent a summer volunteering at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, and since has spent her summers volunteering for the city of Placentia’s youth sports program.

This is just a whale of a great kid.

But none of this begins to tell the story of Cristina Katz. Great kids are not immune to adversity. Cristina, 18, has battled cancer for five years.

In junior high school she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. Chemotherapy, she recalls, was “a miserable time. . . . It was my family that got me through it. And friends at school were great.”

Four years into remission, with the family excited about her progress, Cristina got the kind of news that just kicks your teeth in. She had a new cancer; her thyroid had to be removed.

“It was the worst possible blow,” recalls her mother, Harriet Katz. “But she’s one courageous girl. She’s really a hero to me.”

Cristina came back to play basketball after the second cancer. Her father, Richard Katz, is girls’ basketball coach at Westminster High and Cristina says it’s a standard joke that they live on “Planet Basketball” because it’s such a huge part of their lives.

Here’s what Cristina wrote to another cancer patient, an older woman: “I refused to let it stop me from doing what I want. I had to put up a hard fight, but I’m a fighter and I know you are too.”

Garrett Greer delivered much the same message not long ago to a young cancer patient: “Nobody can know for sure how you feel, but I can tell you this, you’re going to pull through this.”

Garrett, 17, is another who has been mentioned in newspapers many times, for his accomplishments as a swimmer at Irvine High School. “Swimming has been great for me, because it’s helped me stay focused,” he says.

But a score sheet doesn’t tell what it took Garrett Greer to get there. His cancer, lymphoma, was diagnosed on his eighth birthday. Some present. Garrett also talks about family helping him pull through. His parents remained good friends after divorcing and marrying other spouses.

“It’s like having one great big giant family,” he says. “They were all there for me when I needed them, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.”

Garrett spends much of his free time volunteering at the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and explains why: “The chemotherapy I had didn’t even exist the year before I needed it. If it wasn’t for [the foundation], that chemotherapy would not have been there for me, and I wouldn’t be who I am today.”

These two teens, both treated at CHOC, will meet for the first time Thursday, when they will be honored at a dinner at Planet Hollywood in Santa Ana. Each wants to get to know the other; they have a lot in common besides a love of athletics.

After Vegas: The movie “Casino” comes out at video stores throughout Orange County today. It’s exciting with a top cast (Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci). But like so many movies, it can’t begin to compare to the book it’s based on.

Nicholas Pileggi’s “Casino” is the true story of how mob bosses in Chicago managed to take control of several Las Vegas hotels, mainly the Stardust, in the 1970s, long after most people thought Las Vegas had gone legit.

The principal subject is Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, the famous oddsmaker, who ran the Stardust for the mob for years without a license, through slick maneuvering. It was under Rosenthal’s reign that Stardust profits were being skimmed off the top (not reported in the counting room for IRS purposes) and flown to mob bosses in Kansas City, Chicago and New York.

I mention this to Orange County readers who haven’t read the book because it has an interesting and little known postscript: After the FBI finally forced Rosenthal out of Las Vegas, he wound up in Laguna Niguel.

Rosenthal, who cooperated with Pileggi on the book, had a daughter who was crazy about swimming. So in the early 1980s he moved to Orange County to get both her and a son involved with top-ranked swimming coaches. He has since moved on to a quiet life in Florida.

Real Thing: Beware those rip-off telephone solicitation groups with names that sound legitimate. I once almost fell for a group with the words “narcotics,” “police,” and “association” in the name until I learned that nobody connected with narcotics enforcement in Orange County had ever heard of them. (Hint: If they say just leave the money under the doormat, hang up.)

But here’s one making phone calls this week that’s legitimate: the Placentia Police Officers Assn. It has started a telephone campaign to raise funds to promote safety awareness for children. The Placentia Police Department says it welcomes your calls to verify the group’s authenticity.

Wrap-Up: Cristina Katz and Garrett Greer on Thursday night will receive the Kelly Munson Spirit Award, given annually by the CHOC Padrinos, a volunteer support group. It’s named after the former Padrinos president, who died in January. Special guests at the event, called “Share the Spirit ‘96,” will include dozens of former Olympians from the area. Among them: gold medal swimmer Janet Evans.

The former cancer patients both say they are honored, excited and more than a little nervous about all the attention over their awards.

Each reaches another milestone this year: Cristina will pass the fifth year since her Hodgkin’s disease went into remission, which means she’s on the winning end (she’s also free of the second cancer). Garrett will reach his 10th anniversary of remission.

Mothers of both told me having them healthy is reward enough.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or sending a fax to (714) 966-7711.