WR Dan Potokar (official thread) - post #93 fund details

[GrizzlyBuck]

Way to go Dan, keep fighting young man, awesome news.

[Buckskin86]

Dan Potokar update
With cancer gone, life's good
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
By Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Neal C. Lauron | DISPATCH
Former Ohio State walk-on Dan Potokar found time to work with the Buckeyes as a student assistant coach during spring practice.


Photo for The Dispatch
Dan Potokar is engaged to his high school sweetheart, Stephanie Wills.

Regardless of the weather, Dan Potokar's life has become a daily succession of cloudless blue skies.

After wandering through a dark, 16-month maze of treatments for testicular cancer, the former Ohio State receiver appears to have turned the last corner and broken into the clear.

In February, an MRI revealed that all five tumors that dotted Potokar's brain last August had disappeared. His most recent blood work to count his "tumor markers" came back at two. Anything fewer than five is considered clear. Potokar's count once was a quarter of a million.

"We'll take two," said his mother, Nannette Kinman, with a laugh.

So this spring, a young man's thoughts can turn back to life. Potokar is taking a full load of classes and worked with the Buckeyes in their just-completed spring drills as a student assistant coach.

For good measure, the Grove City native is engaged to his high school sweetheart, Stephanie Wills.

"I'm doing great," Potokar said. "I feel wonderful. I'm working out consistently. It's exciting."

BuckeyeXtra - The Columbus Dispatch : With cancer gone, life's good

[Buckskin86]

POTOKAR NOMINATED: Former walk-on WR Dan Potokar has been nominated for the FedEx Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award.

The native of Grove City, Ohio, is currently a student assistant with the football team.

Potokar had been impressive as a wide receiver during spring practice in 2007 and was part of the Ohio State track team's 400-meter relay team. But in the fall of 2007, he became ill and was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and abdomen.

Despite surgery and chemotherapy, the lesions remained on his lungs. Potokar underwent several weeks of intensive treatments in Indianapolis, including two stem-cell transplants. Several months later, five tumors were discovered in Potokar's brain, requiring full-brain radiation and something similar to laser surgery.

Last winter, tests indicated the cancer was gone.

Heyward says he's staying ... as of now