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Morristown's 'Ironman' John Hyland fights cancer, raises awareness

Dave Garey
Correspondent

It was summertime, and John Hyland had every reason to feel good.

The leader of New Jersey's Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) Iron Team enjoyed vacationing with his wife and three children on Long Beach Island at the Jersey Shore. They also shared quality time in Lake Placid, New York, where Hyland competed in his eleventh Ironman triathlon in July.

In August, he learned he would have the honor of serving as grand marshal for the 2015 Morris County St. Patrick's Day parade.

Also worth celebrating was the fact that this past summer marked four and a half years that Hyland had been in remission from acute myeloid leukemia (AML), regarded as one of the deadliest blood cancers.

Then September arrived.

The 48-year-old Morristown resident, and managing director of Private Advisor Group, had a hunch something was wrong.

"I had a case of shingles," he recalled. "They did a bunch of testing, and then I got that very unpleasant phone call."

Aggressive cancer

A biopsy revealed the presence of what is believed to be chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML), an aggressive cancer which may have resulted from the chemotherapy used to fight his leukemia in 2010, Hyland said.

A bone marrow transplant will now be necessary to save his life.

"But before I get the transplant, they need to get me into remission, which is what they're working on right now," he explained, as he prepared for a third round of chemotherapy at Morristown Medical Center.

Assuming the chemo does its job, mid-March would be the earliest that Hyland could obtain the transplant. However, there's still the hurdle of finding a donor.

"Neither one of my sisters is a match, so I need an unrelated donor," he said.

As word of Hyland's predicament spread, friends, co-workers, and the New Jersey LLS chapter sprang into action, setting up an online bone marrow donor drive that got under way Monday.

Looking for marrow donor

The "One Swab Can Save a Life" campaign can be accessed at www.privateadvisorgroup.com/swabforlife, and allows people interested in becoming marrow donors to register online.

The name refers to the ease of joining the "Be the Match" registry, and determining potential donor compatibility with a simple Q-tip swab inside the cheek.

Powered by email blasts from Private Advisor Group's Morristown headquarters to financial advisors throughout New Jersey and the nation – with additional support from the Financial Services Institute, Investment News, and LPL Financial – more than 100,000 financial industry professionals will be directed to the campaign's website.

A goal of adding at least 3,000 people to the Be the Match registry has been set.

"We have never had a donor drive of this magnitude," said Stacey Weathers, executive director of New Jersey's LLS chapter. "John is the true motivator."

Healthy people from age 18 to 44 usually provide the best chance for transplant success, and can obtain swab kits by mail free of charge from the online registry.

People between 45 and 60 who want to enter the donor pool are asked to make a $100 tax-deductible payment to cover the cost of laboratory processing.

The public is invited to a special in-person donor recruitment event from 1 to 7 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Private Advisor Group office, 65 Madison Ave., Morristown.

Volunteers, including Hyland's sister, Maureen Byrne, of Morristown, will handle swabbing duties.

Easy to get tested

"I would do anything for John. He's an inspiration," said Byrne, a teacher's aide at Assumption School in Morristown, who wanted to emphasize the simplicity of the swabbing process.

"I think people don't realize how easy it is. They just come in and open their mouths for 40 seconds," she said.

The public can also assist by making tax-deductible donations – in-person or through the drive's website – to fund LLS-sponsored research into developing treatments to combat AML, and for the Be The Match organization's work in pairing over 6,000 patients annually with marrow donors.

"Who knows, a donor may come out of the drive from Morris County," Hyland said, stressing that the campaign, while organized in his honor, may be a lifeline for countless other cancer patients.

"There's rarely an opportunity where people can have such a direct impact on saving lives. You get into the registry, and if you're the match, you just saved that person's life."

For registrants matched with a patient, advances in technology have made the process of supplying marrow non-invasive and akin to giving blood. Blood is taken from one arm and then returned to the other, usually in just one session, according to the One Swab Can Save a Life website. Any travel, food, lodging or related expenses incurred by donors is paid.

Inspirational face

To many, Hyland has come to represent the inspirational face of courage and resilience after surviving his initial bout with AML in 2010, and then returning to the Ironman circuit to compete in several grueling, day-long triathlons in Hawaii, Lake Placid and New York City.

In the Big Apple Ironman in 2012, Hyland captained New Jersey's LLS IronTeam, helping raise nearly $700,000 for cancer treatment research.

Long-time friend and fellow IronTeam member Guy Adami, who joined Hyland's Private Advisor Group last summer as chief market strategist, and is a panelist on CNBC's "Fast Money" show, believes Hyland will defeat cancer again.

"John Hyland is not going to die," said Adami, of Morristown. "He has a physical strength, emotional strength and spiritual strength that's unrivaled. He will not only beat the disease, but help raise awareness that will save the lives of countless other people."

Another friend, Chuck Sevola, of Randolph, now finds himself in a reversal of roles, having survived his own bout with AML, and a successful stem-cell transplant, after receiving encouragement from Hyland.

"John has been a huge supporter of mine. When he ran the Ironman in Kona, he dedicated the race to me," said Sevola, a vice president of information systems at Prudential Financial in Newark.

The connection between the two began in 2012 when Sevola, now cancer-free 14 months, was feeling "pretty low" after undergoing several weeks of treatment for AML, and noticed a Daily Record feature about Hyland's recovery – to the extent of being able to compete in that summer's NYC Ironman.

Sevola decided to call Hyland for advice, leading to their close friendship. "When I found out he had gotten sick again, I told him that I've been down the road that he's going to go, and for all the support that he gave me, I want to be there for him."

Getting a tractor

Currently undergoing chemotherapy on an outpatient basis, Hyland remains upbeat, and tries to attend the Morristown High School swim meets at which his daughter, Kelsey, and son, Patric, participate, as well as son Kieran's basketball games at Morristown's Assumption School.

"We're real blessed that we have a tremendous support system from family and the community," Hyland said. "It's very humbling."

For Christmas, Hyland's wife, Kristin, presented him with a new John Deere tractor.

The gift has special meaning, because his wife treated him to his first tractor to celebrate his going into remission from AML in 2010.

"It was a gift for getting through it. We had a lot to be thankful for," said Hyland, who admits to being "a little bit of a farmer," and even enjoys using the tractor to plow a path through snow.

"The new one has a cab, and it's heated," he said.

Despite the unknown variables of whether chemotherapy will bring about an anticipated remission on schedule, or a matching marrow donor will be secured by that time, Hyland remains optimistic, and says his doctors are pleased by his progress.

Although Hyland was forced to relinquish his grand marshal duties for this year's Morristown St. Patrick's Day Parade, he believes the spirit of the holiday will be with him.

SEE ALSO: Morris St. Patrick's Day parade grand marshal steps down http://dailyre.co/1CFtFo2

In fact, since mid-March is still a realistic time frame for undergoing his marrow transplant, Hyland has set a special goal.

"I want to have my transplant on St. Patrick's Day," he said enthusiastically. "I'd have a little extra luck of the Irish."

Get Involved in the Bone Marrow Donor Drive, in Honor of Morristown 'Ironman' John Hyland

Campaign: "One Swab Can Save a Life"

Purpose: To encourage people to join the registry of potential bone marrow donors, who are needed to save the lives of cancer patients awaiting marrow transplants

Online:www.privateadvisorgroup.com/swabforlife

In-person: Wednesday, Jan. 21, 1-7 p.m., at Private Advisor Group offices, 65 Madison Ave., Morristown

Needed: Healthy persons of all ancestries to join the "Be the Match" bone marrow donor registry, with persons 18-44 considered the best donors

Determining donor compatibility: A quick swab inside the cheek, performed by volunteers at the Jan. 21st donor drive event, or by potential donors themselves who register online for a swab kit by mail

Cost: Registration/swab kits free to potential donors aged 18-44 (Persons 45-60 may also join registry for a $100 tax-deductible charge)