Wednesday, February 2, 2005

Measured against the tennis greats, this Lewiston boy can hold his own

Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

Lewiston - Zach Bellavance has two things that his dozen or so teammates on the Lewiston High School tennis squad don't have.

One is a small shunt in the back of his head that relieves the pressure caused by a tumor on his brain.

The other is a tennis racket signed by pro tennis legend Andre Agassi.

Put the two together and you get hope.

"I'm not going to actually play with it," Zach, 16, said Monday, gazing with jet-lagged eyes at the souvenir he'd just brought home from the Australian Open. "I'm going to try to come up with some kind of frame for it."

His cancer came three years ago this month in the form of crippling headaches and nausea that left him unable to make it up a flight of stairs. The tumor still resides deep inside Zach's brain, its growth halted by more than a year of chemotherapy that, knock on wood, gave him back his adolescence.

And the tennis racket? That came from the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Maine, a group that deserves far more credit than it gets for giving sick kids something to smile about.

"I think I'm going to do better this year than I did last year," Zach said, eyes still on the racket. "I'm stronger this year than I was last year."

It all started one morning in February 2002, as Zach, his younger brother Ben and their parents, Eric and Diane Bellavance, piled into the car and went to Boston to celebrate the New England Patriots' first Super Bowl victory. All day, Zach complained that his head hurt. In the days that followed, it only got worse.

He couldn't keep food down. He became seriously dehydrated. And as they brought him first to the doctor and then to Central Maine Medical Center, Eric and Diane began noticing that his motor skills seemed to be deteriorating.

Their search for answers took them from CMMC to Maine Medical Center in Portland to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The eventual diagnosis: hypothalamic astrocytoma, a malignant tumor embedded so deep inside Zach's brain that it could not be removed surgically.

Zach, who accurately describes himself as "laid-back most of the time," embarked without complaint on a 14-month regimen of chemotherapy. Unable to attend the second half of seventh grade, he hit the books with a tutor and managed to keep up with his classmates.

His mom and dad became overnight experts on his condition, which responds well to chemotherapy and, if necessary, radiation. Like so many parents with sick children, they also struggled mightily to help ease their son's fears by swallowing their own.

"I remember one day when he was really sick and couldn't keep anything down, he looked up at me and said, 'Dad, what if I'm like this forever? What am I going to do?' " Eric recalled. "It just tore my heart out."

The chemo lasted all through eighth grade, and except for days when he had treatments and other medical appointments, Zach missed only one day of school. By July 2003, the MRIs showed that the tumor, while still there, had been stopped dead in its tracks. The doctors told them biannual scans will determine whether future treatment is needed.

In other words, the Bellavances at long last had reason to celebrate. And the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which heard about Zach's case through the Maine Children's Cancer Program, stood ready to help them do it.

"We average about one wish every five days," said Amy Theiss, communications director for the foundation's Maine chapter in Camden. "Last year, we granted 69 wishes. This year, we're on track for 80 or more."

The criteria are simple: Children from the ages of 2 1/2 to 18 who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness are asked to make a wish. The foundation, as it has almost 600 times in Maine since 1992, then taps into its worldwide network of donated goods, services and money to make the wish come true.

Zach still remembers the day in 2003 when two volunteer "wish granters" came to his home and, notepads in hand, "started asking me all kinds of questions."

He told them how he'd been playing tennis since he was 5. And since he happened to be watching the Australian Open on television at the time, he told them it would be cool to actually go and see it in person, maybe even meet a player or two.

International travel restrictions - some due to terrorism, others from the SARS virus outbreak - made a trip to the 2004 Australian Open impossible. Not a problem, Zach told them, he could wait.

Finally, on Jan. 16, the stretch limo pulled up outside the Bellavances' house and, just like that, whisked them off to the Hilton hotel at Boston's Logan International Airport. Early the next morning, the family embarked on its trip to Melbourne.

From the moment they arrived at the five-star Stamford Plaza Hotel, Zach and his family got the red-carpet treatment from both the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Australian chapter and the Australian Open tournament staff.

Meals? All paid for.

Transportation? Waiting at the door.

Seats for the tennis matches? Close enough to hear every grunt.

"If anyone told us (three years ago) that we'd be there, I'd have never believed it," said Diane. "They were unbelievable to us."

Halfway through their 10-day stay, a tournament official told the Bellavances to follow him. Suddenly, they found themselves sitting in the players' restaurant - and in walked Andre Agassi. They chatted for a few minutes and then Agassi, who was about to compete in a third-round match against Taylor Dent, told a wide-eyed Zach to follow him over to the practice courts.

It gets even better. With only moments to go before the match, Agassi's coach walked over, handed a racket to Zach, and told him to get out there and hit a few.

"I was nervous at first," Zach said. "But I did OK."

Except, of course, when Agassi uncorked a real serve. The ball was behind Zach before he could even lift his racket.

"It was probably, I'd say, about 115 mph," Zach said, still in awe. As he later told a reporter from the Melbourne Herald Sun, "It was dangerous . . . but it was exciting."

Warm-up over, they met at the net, shook hands and walked off the court. Agassi took the racket and wrote on the handle: "To Zach. You're the man! God bless, Andre Agassi" and handed it back to the dumbstruck teenager. Then Agassi went out and beat Dent in straight sets.

"He lost the first two games and I started thinking, 'Oh man, did I mess him up or what?' " Zach said. "But after that he was fine."

A few days later, the tournament people summoned once again. This time, it was Andy Roddick seated at a table. Roddick, mugging for the many cameras, pointed to Zach's baseball cap - it says "L.H.S. Tennis, 2004 State Champs" - and held up a "No. 1" finger.

So amazed was Zach that all of this was actually happening that he found himself tongue-tied much of the time. Daydreaming about meeting these guys is one thing. Actually meeting them is quite another.

"People kept saying, 'Do you have any questions for them?' " Zach said. "And I kept saying, 'No.' "

But now that he's home, Zach has thought of something he'd like to bounce off them.

Which is?

"I want to ask, 'What do you do when you're behind and it seems hopeless?' " Zach said. " 'How do you keep going?' "

Good question - with one modification.

They should be asking him.

Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at: bnemitz@pressherald.com