By Rebecca Burton/ rburton@miamiherald.com

Read Miami Herald article here

When doctors at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Broward told CJ George he had cancer, the Hialeah boy didn’t understand.He had only been suffering from back pain.

“I was only 9, I didn’t know exactly what I was going through,” said CJ, now 13.

His mother remembers how the news affected him

“When he was told he could no longer play sports, he had a total meltdown,” said Dawn George.. “He didn’t care about cancer; he cared about how his life was going to change.”

CJ is now in remission after undergoing two years of treatment for Stage 3 Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. After seeing children his own age pass away, CJ wanted to help raise awareness and fund research to find cures for blood cancers. This year, CJ was named the 2012 Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Southern Florida Chapter’s Boy of the Year.

His sponsor — and the society’s Man of the Year — is Matthew Sacco, president of communications and public affairs for Sunrise Sports and Entertainment, the Florida Panther’s Hockey Club and the BankAtlantic Center .

Each year, LLS names a boy and girl of the year with either leukemia or lymphoma blood cancers. LLS also names a Man and Woman of the Year, as part of a 10-week national campaign to raise funding for critical research. Each candidate raises money on their boy or girl’s behalf, and each dollar raised counts as a vote. Sacco won after raising more than $100,000. Together, the 13 candidates raised $378,000.

“It was a record-breaking year for us,” Rhonda Siegel, Campaign Manager for LLS Southern Florida Chapter, said. “It was the most money ever raised.”

Sacco said he jumped at the chance to get involved and campaign after meeting CJ two years ago at LLS’ Light the Night Walk’s corporate reception, an event aimed to inspire corporate sponsors to get involved. CJ was the honoree that night and was scheduled to speak, after he had just come back from one of his treatments. Continue reading →