Bethel Park host 5K run in memory of Joey Fabus
David and Cindy Fabus hold a photo of their son, Joey, who at age 8 died of DIPG. Childhood Cancers only get 4 percent of governmental funding and of every form, brain cancer gets 1 percent of that. With that 1 percent, then DIPG hardly gets anything, notes Cindy.
Cindy and David Fabus share a tender moment with their son, Joey, when he underwent treatments for DIPG
The Fabus family. In addition to Joey and Hannah, David and Cindy have four other children: Nick (front) and Josh and daughters, Clarissa and Olivia. Josh helped hand out Chromebooks in Joey’s memory to students at IMS. Olivia is a senior and a cheerleader at Bethel Park. Clarissa is a member of the national guard and a student at California University of Pennsylvania.
Shirts are being sold at local Bethel Park businesses to support Childhood Cancer. September is the designated month to create awareness for the diseases that afflict the young. Bethel Park will host a Gold Out Night when the Hawks host Peters Township at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 9.
Bethel Park and Peters Township high schools will be among several area teams wearing gold ribbon stickers on their helmets and gold laces in their shoes in memory of Joey Fabus as part of the Going Gold campaign.
Bethel Park to host 5K run, Gold Out Night
By Eleanor Bailey
Sports editor
ebailey@thealmanac.net
No amount of time can erase the ache in David Fabus’ already compromised heart.
As he watches his son Nick practice with his Bethel Park youth football teammates, he glances over at his wife, Cindy, who laughs. “This is what we do,” she said as her husband regains his composure and talks about how meaningful September is.
It is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and many events are scheduled to honor their 8-year-old son. Joey Fabus died Jan. 21, 2015, from an inoperable brain tumor called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma.
When the Hawks host Peters Township at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 9 in a key Southeastern Conference clash, the football teams will wear gold ribbon stickers on their helmets. So will Keystone Oaks when the Golden Eagles host Beaverat 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at Dormont Stadium. Other squads, such as Canon-McMillan, South Fayette and Chartiers-Houston, as well as recreation teams in the Washington-Greene Youth Football League will participate in the Going Gold campaign. The rec teams will not only affix the stickers to their helmets, they will wear gold laces in their shoes.
Additionally, “Let’s Tackle Childhood Cancer Together” gold T-shirts will be sold during the games. They are also available for purchase at Bethel Park businesses such as Bruster’s, Dairy Queen, Spartan Pharmacy, Gimmie A Cookie, Jenkins Chiroapractor and Sincerely Yogurt
On Sept. 18, the second annual Joey Fabus Memorial Run will be held at Bethel Park High School. The race features a 5-kilometer run and a 1-mile fun walk. Visit www.joeyfabus.com, www.jfccf.org or www.joeystrong.org to sign up for the race.
“A lot of people say how difficult the course is and how tough it was, but then they say that’s what Joey was all about. He helped push them,” David Fabus said, then paused to check his emotions. “If Joey could deal with what he dealt with, they would tell us, then we can do a 5K with a couple hills. That’s nice to hear. Hard to hear. You can tell that some things are always hard to talk about.”
Since April 2014, things have been hard for the Fabus family, which also includes Clarissa, Olivia and Joshua. A month after experiencing double vision, Joey was diagnosed with DIPG. He was dead within nine months.
“It’s a terrible disease, ” Mrs. Fabus said. “No chance of survival. Nine to 12 months is the most. So every day you wake up, it’s one day closer to the end.”
And the end really never ends. The Fabus family deals with Joey’s as well as his sister’s devastating deaths on a daily basis. Hannah Fabus, 15 months, died because of complications arising from a condition regarding her cystic-ridden kidneys.
“We have good days and bad days,” said Mr. and Mrs. Fabus. “Nothing prepares you for this. Nothing prepares you for the final.”
“It’s odd. Surreal,” continued Cindy. “You wake up and are reminded. It’s like you are in this dream and it doesn’t end. You have good moments, and then you have moments that just stop you in your tracks and realize how different your life is forever. It’s never normal again. Whether it’s work, a family event, holiday, football game, it’s just not the same. There is something missing all the time.”
“It’s very frustrating,” said David. “Every day is the same way. You have good days and you are quickly reminded. Just watching Nick do football and knowing Joey cant be here to watch.”
“Or even be a part of it, if he wanted to,” added Cindy. “I will notice how nice it is outside, and it makes me think about how much it stinks that he can’t be part of that. A beautiful day and then you are hit with that reality that somebody you loved can’t be with you to enjoy it.”
In their attempt to fill the void, the Fabus family established the Joey Fabus Childhood Cancer Foundation in his honor. They have helped other families throughout their crisis with DIPG or other childhood cancers and supported research, specifically for DIPG. They have already sent $50,000 to Stanford University, which has doctors researching cures. They have helped families throughout the country and the world with their plights and fights against all cancers.
“You can’t not help,” explained Cindy. “Even though our goal is to help DIPG find a cure, we still do things for childhood cancer awareness. We didn’t know September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month until it happened to us. So we try to push it out there.”
“I think as hard as it is, the good that has come out of it is that we started with the foundation and our goal is to promote as much awareness as we can and help fight our cause, which is hopefully finally finding a cure for DIPG,” added David.
“Even if it is not DIPG, seeing other kids and families go through cancer, it touches us deeply. When we see another kid that is sick, we struggle with it. It changes you.”
Despite his illness, Joey didn’t change. He enjoyed playing superheroes. The community set aside a day in his honor and made him an honorary member of the police force. Joey dreamed of one day becoming an officer. Joey also helped his dad at every turn. Dave said Joey was “my mini-me”
“Any project I would be doing around the house, he would be with me until it was done. The other kids were done with Dad after five minutes,” Mr. Fabus added with a laugh. “Joey was always smiling even through most of his treatments. There were so many special things.”
“He never gave up,” Cindy added. “Even before this all happened he was a happy kid.”
Joey even was most happy when he exercised. “He loved the WE Run Club,” said his parents. When he attended Washington Elementary School, his classmates trained for the Pittsburgh Kids Marathon. Joey wanted to run and practice. And he did attend many of the workouts along the Montour Trail, which runs adjacent to the school.
“We have a lot of great memories of him running,” said Joey’s parents. “Even his teacher talking about her memory of him was of him telling her that the rain didn’t matter.”
“If you watched Joey run, he was like Forrest Gump, but he ran,” said his father. “He’d tell his teacher that he didn’t have to run fast. He liked to talk when he ran. It made it seems not so hard. He wasn’t a big runner. He just liked to do it.”
That is why the upcoming 5K important is so important to the Fabus family. The race, like all the fundraising efforts, keeps Joey’s memory alive.
“People remember him, and as cliché as it sounds, we want his memory to live on,” said Joey’s parents. “We want people to remember that Joey was here, what he went through and what it means to us to carry on his legacy through the foundation. We do little things here and there, but this is the biggest. It’s a ton of work and takes a lot of dedicated people to pull this off. That speaks volumes, that people care and want to be involved.”
Bethel Park girls’ basketball coach Jonna Burke has been involved from the get-go. She is the race coordinator, along with Jeff Smith. Her team has been involved in several fundraisers for Joey.
“I only met Joey once, but I think about him daily,” Burke said. “He was such a brave little boy who taught our entire community to not take anything for granted and hug our kids a little tighter each day.”
Burke added that she enjoys being part of the Joey Fabus Childhood Cancer Foundation and specifically helping with the race because it makes her feel like she’s doing something, instead of doing nothing to help find a cure and bring awareness for DIPG and childhood cancers.
“Joey did not die in vain and his legacy will live on in healthy kids because his foundation and others like his helped end DIPG,” she said.
The Fabus family hopes to wipe out all cancers that afflict children. Mr. Fabus noted that when adults get cancer, it’s later in life and they may lose 10 to 15 years.
“Children lose 70 years of life, and it affects everybody else forever,” he said. “So we are hoping this foundation helps, and the Gold Out is for Childhood Cancer. It’s still huge to create an awareness for childhood cancer. It’s not always going to be about Joey, but it’s what gets us through it all. Keeping his memory alive and promoting awareness. So many people don’t know.”
People also don’t know that through Joey’s whole ordeal, Mr. Fabus has had his own health issues. A self-employed remodeler, David had open-heart surgery in 2009. Recently, he started gaining weight and his liver began to malfunction. The valve in his heart is bad, and the pacemaker wires keeping the organ beat are aging. But Mr. Fabus put his health issues on hold for his son.
“My heart could be fixed,” he said, “but Joey couldn’t.”