Page 2
November, 2014
How Football is Helping 14-Year Old Jordan Sabio
Fight Cancer
Cancer patient Jordan Sabio and his family
Back row -Kevin & Julie Sabio (Jordan’s parents);
Front row - Jordan Sabio and sister Kylee Sabio
Fourteen-year old Jordan Sabio has
always had a tenacious appetite for football.
When he was younger, he joined a travel
football team that played against other teams
from Texas to Florida. More recently, Jordan
played for a local playground (JPARD) and
VOL School as both a defensive end and
middle linebacker. Next year he hopes to
attend De La Salle High School and join its
football team. To better prepare for his goal,
Jordan recently began training at Duke
Academy, which offers programs to help
athletes with coordination, technique,
balance, and strength. This young man is
serious about football.
While training at Duke, the normally
healthy and outgoing teen began to
experience knee pain. Although he still tried
to practice through the pain, it became
unbearable and he was forced to see a doctor.
Jordan and his family were in shock when
they heard the diagnosis: cancer.
Jordan was diagnosed with
osteosarcoma, a cancer that originates in the
bones and is most common in teens and
children. A tumor had grown in his right leg,
right below his knee. Surgery and
chemotherapy were inevitable.
But just like the players on a football
team, his family, friends, church parish, and
even the community huddled together to help
Jordan score against cancer. To help unite this effort,
Jordan’s family had special t-shirts and silicone bracelets
made with the logo “TEAM JORDAN.” They caught on
like wildfire. Not only did these items help raise a few
bucks to help pay for Jordan’s medical expenses, but it
also brought awareness to a type of cancer that often falls
in the shadows of other cancers with national campaigns.
Team Jordan began to take form, gathering “team
members” from the most unlikely places.
Take for example the Sabio’s neighbors. They
heard that Jordan had a seizure in the Hooters Gretna
location right before he was able to chow down on one of
his favorite dishes, chicken wings. Right after his
seizure, he was immediately transported to Children’s
Hospital via ambulance, so he missed out on the wings.
The Sabio’s neighbors knew they had to get Jordan his
chicken wings. But they wanted to give Jordan the full
dining experience, so they arranged for Hooters
waitresses Brenda Breve and Alyssa Wilks to deliver a
huge portion of their chicken wings right to Jordan in his
hospital bed. Touchdown Team Jordan!
And then there’s VOL student Terri Berggren,
who saw Jordan at a recent Family Day Picnic at VOL
Parish. She told her mom she wanted to set up a
lemonade stand to help Jordan. Her goal was $300. With
help from her family, they sold lemonade, sweets, and
bracelets and raised over $1,000! Terri scored big for
Team Jordan!
The most famous members of Team Jordan are
also members of another team - the New Orleans Saints.
Through Thomas Morestead’s “What You Give Will