Whether it’s through a text, email or phone call, every day Austin Pollack checks in with his father. His dad has been battling stage 4 colon cancer for nearly a year and a half.

“Who do I need to talk to right now? I need my dad. I don’t know what the hell I’d do without him,” said Pollack, a senior broadcast and digital journalism major.

Pollack has a strong relationship with his father. That’s the reason Pollack is participating in Syracuse University Relay For Life. For Pollack, the public relations chairman of the event, Relay For Life is more than just fundraising.

The 12-hour Relay For Life event will take place Saturday in the Carrier Dome and begins at 6 p.m. Registered teams — including student clubs, Greek organizations and individual groups — will take turns walking around the Dome. As of Thursday evening, SU’s Relay For Life website recorded 94 teams with a total of 1,291 registered participants who raised $53,711.64. The money raised from the event will go to the American Cancer Society.

Making his father proud is something Pollack has always strived to do, and his father’s constant battle and positive attitude are what motivated him to join Relay For Life.

“This is someone who fights, and it’s so inspiring to see someone who says, ‘This is possible,’” Pollack said. “I wish I could be half the man he is.”

Pollack’s father, Irwin, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in November 2013 after a series of unexplained fevers and fatigue. He has undergone more than 20 chemotherapy treatments, and his tumor marker levels have dropped from 900 to below one.

But cancer was the last thing he expected.

“The doctor came in and he had a really long face, and he said, ‘3–4 inches from your colon, you got some cancer,’” Irwin Pollack said, recalling his doctor’s assessment of his colonoscopy. “I froze because I never thought about cancer before. I never thought about cancer. I never, ever thought about cancer.”

His father’s non-stop attitude is what motivates him to do his best in school and in life, Pollack said.

“When times get tough — it doesn’t get tougher for him,” Pollack said. “Keep going. Keep doing it. He does.”

Jamie Goldfarb, a senior public health major and tri-chair of Relay For Life, said she has known Pollack since freshman year.

“You would never know that cancer has hit his family because he has such a positive attitude and he’s always happy to help,” Goldfarb said.

Relay For Life at SU became an officially recognized student organization last fall, Goldfarb added, and because of that, the group will be able to donate about $10,000 more this year to the ACS — money that would normally be used to rent the Dome.

Adriana Sereno, community manager of Relay For Life of the Eastern Division of the American Cancer Society, said ACS uses the money to fund programs such as Look Good Feel Better, which helps women learn how to use makeup differently to cope with the side effects of treatment, and Road To Recovery, which connects volunteer drivers with patients in need of transportation to their doctor’s appointments.

Sereno, who is also a Class of 2014 SU alumna, added that events such as Relay For Life are important, because they not only raise money to continue to run programs and sponsor research, but they give hope to cancer survivors, as well as people who are still fighting.

“You literally give them more birthdays,” Sereno said. “You’re giving them hope that they’re going to live on.”

For Pollack, this ideology rings true. Time and research are what he and his dad have on their side. As long as chemotherapy continues to work for Irwin, neither one of them is giving up.

“I’m very proud of him. It’s not easy to go through,” Pollack said. “It doesn’t change who we are as people. I’m still me, he’s still him. This is just one chapter of his life — that’s all it is.”

Published on April 15, 2015 at 8:54 pm