Salerno helps sister tackle cancer

TORONTO – It was just a car ride and some moderate traffic. But for Mike Salerno, even idling in a mall parking lot means a lot if he gets to be in the car with his sister.

The Northern Illinois senior kicker got to spend hours of quality time in the car with his sister, Randie Marie Salerno, during a day of shopping over the holiday break. The fact that she was even in the car was cause enough for celebration.

On Aug. 5, Randie, a senior at Sandburg High School in Orland Park, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the immune system. The good news was that it is considered one of the more curable types of cancers.

After months of chemotherapy at Hope Children's Hospital in Oak Brook, Randie completed the chemo and now goes through scans for about six months before doctors can say she's in remission. So far, her scans have been clear. Her next one is a few days after Saturday's International Bowl, which Mike will kick in against South Florida at the Rogers Centre.

"I spent a lot of time in traffic with her. That's what we try and do. Being able to spend time with her," Mike said. "Stuff like this, with families and things like that, sometimes it works out for the better and it definitely has.

"She's getting back to being a normal girl. Her hair is growing back. She couldn't run at all because she would be so out of oxygen. She's able to do that now."

And Mike was happy to take her Christmas shopping for the afternoon in Orland Park. Mike didn't know what to get Randie, so he took her shopping and ended up getting his sister a pair of boots and an FM transmitter for her IPod, both items she picked out.

This season hasn't been easy on the Salerno family, beginning with Randie's diagnosis.

Aug. 5 was also the first official day of practice for the Huskies. Mike found himself in NIU coach Jerry Kill's office. Kill was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2005, underwent successful treatment and has been in remission since then.

"That was a shocker," Mike said. "That's when she was about to start school and everything, so that was a bad, bad time. The first day I went and talked to coach Kill because he's been there before and I went in coach Kill's office and I cried basically. I didn't know what to do."

Kill told him he had one day to be sad. From then on, he and his family, including his younger brother Ryan, also a kicker for NIU, had to be a support system for her when she lost her hair, missed homecoming, missed his games and missed out on all but three games doing at Sandburg what she wants to do later in life – become an athletic trainer.

"I think the family has been very strong," Kill said. "I think she has done tremendously and you've got to give that family credit for what they've gone through."

Kill's message was clear, Mike needed to be positive and treat things are normal as possible.

"I said, 'Shoot, there are a lot of things nowadays in modern-day medicine and all of the things that we have in our country and all of the research,' " Kill said. "Don't be negative. Be positive."

Kill helped out with that, too, acknowledging Randie at the team's annual banquet, resulting in a standing ovation. Mike did his job, and also paid tribute to his sister in a number of ways.

A friend made an armband with a lime green ribbon – the symbol for Hodgkin's Lymphoma – on it that he still wears. He had Randie pick out his kicking cleats and he wrote her initials on the front. Mike, who was 18 of 24 on field goals and was a second-team Alll-Mid-American Conference player this season, used the cleats and the situation as motivation.

His shoes also have a slogan on them: "Until the end," after a song by the band Breaking Benjamin.

"They sing about stuff and the [lead singer] has a problem but he's like, 'You know what? I'm going to stick it out and battle through,' " he said. "That had a lot of meaning."

And the effort he put forth on the field and making time for Randie off of it had a positive effect on the family as a whole and continues to do so after her treatments.

"She's been really strong, surprisingly," he said. "She hasn't always had the best of luck when it comes to things like this. But she's done really well. We try to make it easier on her. My brother and I, we go home as much as possible. It's gone as well as you could ask."