Mike Krzak Participates in Cycle for Survival

Clifford Law Offices’ partner Michael Krzak is leading the Cycle for Survival 2012 team, Emma’s Eight, on Feb. 11 in Chicago as part of a national effort to raise funds for rare forms of cancer.

Krzak has a reason to be involved in a cause like he never before in his life: his four-year-old daughter, Emma, has a rare form of eye cancer, retinoblastoma, and he’s determined to help find a cure.  In fact, Emma is the Cycle for Survival 2012 Poster Child. 

Emma was just five weeks old when Krzak noticed a flash in his infant daughter’s eye while feeding her a bottle.  His wife, Nicole, said she had noticed a similar flash the day before.  They immediately took her to the doctor where specialists diagnosed the cancer. 

After six months of chemotherapy and multiple laser surgical procedures on her right eye at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Krzak took his daughter to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York that offered an experimental procedure at the time but that also was the only hope of saving her eye.  A catheter was run from the femoral artery in her leg to her eye so that chemotherapy was delivered directly to the tumor site. The procedure miraculously worked.  Emma has peripheral vision in her right eye and full vision in her left.

Krzak wants to make others aware of this rare form of cancer so that if the next mother or father sees a flash in their child’s eye, they will know what to do and have more options.  For the second year in Chicago, he, his family and friends will Cycle for Survival.  On Feb. 11 at Equinox The Loop, 200 W. Monroe St., Chicago, a volunteer team of cyclists will ride for four hours in an effort to beat last year’s goal of $20,000.  Similar Cycles are going on in various other major cities around the country including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

To register for the indoor event or to donate, go to www.cycleforsurvival.org.  All of the money goes directly to funding research studies and clinical trials for so-called orphan cancers – those that affect 200,000 people or less. 

To interview Krzak and his daughter, Emma,  please contact Michael Krzak at 312-899-9090 or Caitlin Watras at Edelman at 212-277-3727 or Caitlin.Watras@edelman.com.   Photos also are available upon request.