By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
Wednesday, Oct. 9 brought with it a wave of relief for East Syracuse resident Dan Healy, who found out that afternoon that his acute myeloid leukemia was in remission.
“As of now, there’s no sign of disease in my bone marrow,” Healy, 56, said.
By that point, Healy had been through three months of treatment at Strong Memorial Hospital’s Wilmot Cancer Center, part of the University of Rochester’s medical complex.
“The nursing staff and doctors are very, very special people,” Healy said. “I was lucky to be referred out to that group.”
One of nine children born to William and Lorraine Healy, Dan Healy and his eight living siblings used bethematch.org to see if anyone could assist him in a bone marrow transplant or stem cell donation.
Two of his siblings, 53-year-old Aimee Healy-Reeves and 59-year-old Patricia Adler, ended up being matches to the family’s surprise. Doctors picked Healy-Reeves, a 99% match, to be the donor since she was the younger of the two sisters.
In September, just one month before the news of her brother’s recovery, Healy-Reeves went through disease testing, blood work and a stem cell infusion from her body to Dan’s.
“He wasn’t looking for improvement until 100 days, but I guess because of the match and us being so close, things started happening right away,” Healy-Reeves said. “It’s like a miracle.”
Because of his stint in the hospital, Healy had not been able to attend his nephew Scott’s football games, so the Oct. 12 Jamesville-DeWitt game against Fulton the week of his recovery announcement served as a fitting opportunity to make a return.
The rest of the family thought the same, and Healy-Reeves planned for a ceremony to take place at the 50-yard line during halftime.
She also spoke with Jamesville-DeWitt’s head coach Eric Ormond, who was able to procure a jersey bearing no. 64, the number Healy wore during his playing days with the Red Rams.
In his senior year, Healy had been the defensive lineman for 1981’s sectional championship-winning varsity team, coached by Carl Bjork in his last year before retirement.
“We were everything a team should be,” Healy said. “We all played our hardest. We really gelled together and made things happen.”
Scott Reeves, a junior nose guard for the Red Rams, swapped in his usual no. 56 jersey and donned no. 64 during the Oct. 12 game to pay tribute to his uncle.
Healy’s niece Erin, a graphic designer, also made no. 64 stickers and commemorative decals featuring the orange leukemia ribbon to place on each J-D helmet.
T-shirts made by Erin and Healy’s son William were passed around as well.
Even some of Healy’s former teammates from that 1981 team, including former NFL wide receiver Scott Schwedes, showed up for the ceremony.
Despite Fulton defeating J-D that day 12-7, Healy said the support he experienced was “overwhelming.”
“I’m really glad that he’s still around,” Scott, Healy’s godson, said. “I just love him very much.”
