Playing for life

Mike Sciacca

There aren’t too many 15-year-olds around who reach a milestone

anniversary so young in life.

On Friday, Nicholas Russell will reach one. It will be one year

since he underwent a liver transplant.

On Saturday, the day after the anniversary of his life-saving

operation, his friends and classmates at Huntington Beach High

School’s Academy of Performing Arts, and the Musical Youth Artist

Repertory Theatre, will stage a production that is a celebration and

a fund-raiser.

The play, “Broadway: Behind the Curtain,” which will be held at

Stacey Middle School where Nicholas was part of the school’s Musical

Youth Artist Repertory Theatre as a seventh- and eighth-grade

student, will raise money for yet another operation the young man

needs.

Last November, Nicholas, who said he had flu-like symptoms linger

for nearly three weeks, was diagnosed with acute liver failure.

A short time later, on Nov. 15, he was at the UCLA Medical Center,

receiving a liver transplant.

“It’s hard to believe it was a year ago,” he said. “Really, I

don’t remember much about that particular day. The one thing I do

remember was waking up with a new liver.”

Doctors, he said, believed that a virus had attacked his liver at

an alarming rate.

The transplant was a success and the liver was working, he said,

but he later learned that the liver donor had Hepatitis C.

Just two months after the transplant, Nicholas was diagnosed with

aplastic anemia, a blood disease that attacks healthy blood cells.

Doctors have recommended a life-saving bone marrow transplant for

Nicholas, his mother, Becky, said, but so far a match has not been

found.

“Doctors think that the same virus that attacked my liver,

attacked my healthy blood cells,” he said. “It was another thing I

would have to live with.”

In an effort to help Nicholas, the Academy of Performing Arts and

the Musical Youth Artist Repertory Theatre, have decided to help.

The play is an on-going fund-raising effort that has been assisted

by the Children’s Organ Transplant Assn., a nonprofit organization

that helps families get started with fund-raising projects.

All proceeds from ticket sales are tax deductible and will

directly fund Nicholas for any needs that his insurance does not

cover, as well as any other medical expenses.

The money raised will be available to him as a lifelong fund.

The Russell family began fund-raising efforts last July, first

setting up donation buckets in front of businesses.

“That didn’t go over too well,” said Patti Russell, Nicholas’ aunt

and the fund-raising campaign coordinator. “It’s been hard getting

donations. The people at [the Children’s Organ Transplant Assn.] said

that fund-raising in a larger community, such as Huntington Beach,

should be easier to raise money than say, in a small community. But

the reality is, it has not.”

She says that fund-raising efforts thus far have totaled $7,000.

Their goal, she said, is $75,000.

The family has staged previous fund-raising events at BJ’s

Restaurant, Ruby’s Diner and through garage sales and root beer float

sales.

C-Joy’s, a boutique in the Westminster Mall, is donating a portion

of the sales of Christmas items to Nicholas’ cause.

Now, the Academy of Performing Arts and the Musical Youth Artist

Repertory Theatre are stepping up.

The play seems like the perfect fund-raising project to benefit

Nicholas, a young man who is enthralled with all aspects of theater,

is a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock and all types of movies. He has a

DVD collection he says that numbers around 100.

Nicholas has acted in a few plays and had done “behind the scenes”

work on various academy projects such as lighting and set design.

A sophomore, he attends acting and technical classes at the

academy four afternoons each week and receives home schooling twice

weekly.

He travels monthly to the UCLA Medical Center to check up on his

liver functions.

“They said that because of the Hepatitis C, eventually, I will

need another liver,” Nicholas said. “That will come down the line.”

He is taking several different medications -- around 50 pills a

day, he said, to stabilize his liver and blood counts.

His condition, and the way he feels, varies from day to day.

“I’ve progressively gotten better, but on some days I do feel

pretty bad,” he said. “There are days when I feel very fatigued and

don’t really feel like doing anything.

“But everyday that I do go to school, I feel better because I’m

doing something that I love,” he said. “I love acting and the

technical side of the theater sometimes bowls me over. Being there is

a definite boost to my spirits.”