May 9, 2008
Matt DiFebo, UCF's associate athletics director for external services, is training to run his fifth marathon of 2008. On June 21, he will travel to Anchorage, Alaska, to compete in his ninth marathon in two and a half years. This race is about more than health or personal accomplishment to DiFebo.
"I have experience running marathons, but the others I ran for myself," DiFebo said. "This one, I'm running for Sue."
Sue Konetzni and her husband Doug became UCF football season ticket holders in 2003, two years after they moved back to Orlando. The Konetznis never attended UCF, but decided to buy season tickets per the advice of close friends Dick and Mary Nunis. They purchased a group of tickets, and Sue encouraged her colleagues at Coldwell Banker to purchase tickets, too. Longtime friend and coworker Alena Mendes-Austin was one of the first to do so. Others soon followed, and Sue's group expanded from 12 people in the first season to 40 by the next.
"Everybody in our group graduated from a different college, and only one person went to UCF. Sue went around the office and asked, `Don't you want to root for the home team?' She truly cared about people," Mendes-Austin recalled. "She is the only reason I am involved in UCF athletics, and I know a lot of other people who feel the same way."
Sue met DiFebo when her organized ticket sales and tailgates for her group. "Matt was very instrumental in helping Sue. He made her feel comfortable, and that's really how our relationship with UCF started," Doug Konetzni said.
DiFebo says his relationship with Sue and the rest of her group was important to him. "We have a very personal connection to our season ticket holders. It is a family."
Early in 2006, Sue told her husband she was not feeling well. The Konetznis visited several doctors, but none were able to give them any answers. In May, her symptoms worsened, and the Konetznis went to the emergency room. Doctors told Sue her white blood cell count was nearly 10 times that of a healthy person. They diagnosed her with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma Burkett's, a rare form of cancer that primarily affects the immune and central nervous systems.
Over the next nine months, Sue endured eight doses of chemotherapy. "She would be in the hospital for two or three weeks at a time. She would go through one week of treatment, two weeks of recovery, come home for a week, and then go right back," Doug said.
When Sue went to the hospital for her seventh dosage of chemo, doctors told her the cancer was in remission, but that she would need to continue treatment to ensure it did not return. While her family and friends shared a collective sigh of relief, Sue quietly continued to suffer from tremendous pain throughout her body. "No matter how bad she felt, she never let people really know how bad it was. She wasn't that kind of person," Mendes-Austin said.
Instead of focusing on the pain she endured, Sue preferred to devote her time with friends and family to talking about the same things they talked about before her diagnosis, including UCF football. The Konetznis kept their season tickets while Sue was in treatment, but often gave them away, watching the Knights on television at the hospital instead.
As the common link between some 40 season ticket holders, Sue received constant reminders of how much friends and colleagues were thinking of her each time the Knights took the field. "We called her from every game, especially on the way home," Mendes-Austin said. "Everyone would ask her, `Did you see this?, `Did you see that?' She would always say, `Oh yeah, I was watching it on TV. I was wondering how you were doing.' There was a bad storm one game, and she was concerned about us the whole time. She stayed on top of it."
DiFebo also kept in touch with Sue throughout football season. He spoke with her friends often and called Sue before UCF home games.
Though she did her best to obscure the severity of her condition, a visit to the doctor late in 2006 revealed Sue was no longer in remission. She would need a stem cell transplant, an elaborate type of blood transfusion, to maintain any chance of survival. Even with the procedure, doctors told Sue the likelihood of the treatment saving her life was 20 percent.
According to Mendes-Austin, Sue was not discouraged. "She never thought the cancer would take her life. She was always upbeat. We had birthday parties in the hospital. Sue never, ever let people feel bad for her."
For a stem cell transplant to be successful, two individuals must be nearly a perfect match in blood type. Sue's options were limited to her son, who was a 50 percent match, and her younger brother, who was a near perfect match.
Doug admits the process took a toll on him, their son, and Sue's brother. "Here is this lady, fighting for her life every day. Her brother comes down and [does] a wonderful job of trying to help her. It wasn't easy for him, for me, or any of us," Doug said. "He was very honorable. He's the only brother. Without him, we didn't have a chance."
The stem cell transplant took close to a week, and Sue initially showed all the signs of a successful procedure. "Everything [the doctors] looked at was indicative of the cells agreeing to live. We got through... and she was actually starting to get better," Doug said.
Then Sue's strength began to diminish. "Even though they thought the transplant had taken place, I don't think we will ever know 100 percent," Doug recalled. "We thought she was going to get better. Really, she was getting worse. The cancer was consuming her body."
Sue Konetzni died on December 31, 2007. Her battle with cancer lasted nearly two years, and those closest to her say Sue never lost hope.
"She was a fighter. She always saw the upside of things," Mendes-Austin said. "Not a lot of people do that. Most people in her position fall apart. They blame everybody. They get angry. But throughout everything, Sue maintained dignity and grace. She never, ever made me feel [like] she was going to die."
Mendes-Austin called DiFebo the next week. His response was not what she expected. "During that phone call, I said to her, `I would like to run a marathon to honor Sue.'"
DiFebo told Mendes-Austin he wanted to run with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. The program provides training and support to thousands of volunteers in exchange for their commitment to raise money for blood cancer research.
Mendes-Austin thought it was an excellent idea. "What Matt didn't know when he suggested that to me, is that Sue was a runner. A month before she got sick, she and I started training for a 15K. She bought a new pair of shoes, but she was never able to run the race."
Instead, Sue wore her new running shoes each time she went to the hospital. "They were incentive to her. She was adamant she would beat this thing and get back to her training, because Sue didn't want to just run a race. She wanted to win her age group," Mendes-Austin said.
Then, DiFebo took it one step further. "When I found out she was a runner, I thought of carrying her shoes with me as a tribute, [and] as a way to help her run the race she never got to run."
Doug was honored when DiFebo told him his plans. "I think what Matt's doing is unbelievable. It has a tremendous amount of significance," he said. "He's doing it in honor of Sue and her desire to run. He's a very special person, and so was Sue.
"He told me he wants her shoes, and I think that's pretty cool. He couldn't wear them, because her feet are little, but I definitely have to give him those shoes," Doug said.
Sue would have turned 62 on June 21. As friends and family remember Sue's enduring spirit on her birthday, DiFebo will pay tribute by competing in the race he is calling "26.2 for Sue."
"I didn't know Sue was a runner when I came up with this idea. Then to find out the marathon I picked was on her birthday, it makes the whole experience even more significant."
The Konetznis' son and daughter-in-law welcomed their first child in April. Doug says his new role as a grandfather is a blessing.
"If you're fortunate enough in life to have children and grandchildren, I really do believe your life continues through them," Doug said. "So in essence, we lost Sue, but we gained another child. Therefore, life goes on. I think by running this race, Matt is celebrating that life. He's celebrating Sue, and he's celebrating our grandchild, too. No matter what, life goes on. [There is no] better day to appreciate and celebrate that than Sue's birthday."
- Stephanie Shaw
This story appears in the May edition of KnightVision. Produced 10 times per year, KnightVision is the official publication of UCF Athletics. Each issue includes stories about UCF teams, student-athletes and coaches. To order 10 exciting issues from August through June, call 1-888-877-4373 (ext. 121) or 336-768-3400 (ext. 121).