Fourteen-year-old Arlington Avenue resident Joyce Sweeney, who recently recovered from acute lymphoma, has had one of her long cherished dreams come true. Through the Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Jersey, Sweeney was able to take 15 weeks lessons in modeling.
“I wanted to go to Disney World,” Sweeney explained. “Then I heard my cousin was going to modeling school. I always wanted to do that, so that’s what I asked for.”
Sweeney lives with her mother Keisha and father James Van Ness and three brothers on Arlington Avenue. Until late December 2001, Sweeney was attending Public School 17. She was diagnosed with acute lymphoma near the end of the school year, according to her mother.
“We were devastated when we first heard the diagnosis,’ said Sweeney’s father. “But we had our faith and we stuck through it.”
According to the Lymphoma Research Foundation, lymphoma is a type of cancer that occurs with the production of abnormal cells in the lymph nodes. The abnormal lymph cells accumulate faster than the normal cells and begin to feed off the normal cells. This can spread cancerous cells to different parts of the body including the spleen, bone marrow and the blood.
Sweeney has only a few more classes to make up at the Barbizon School and Agency of Paramus, but she did participate in the graduation ceremonies held in June.
“The graduating class had to walk the way we were taught in model class,” Sweeney explained. “It was a lot of fun.”
Sweeney said the best thing she received from her time in modeling school was self-confidence.
“It gave me something to look forward to all the time,” Sweeney said.
From the time of her diagnosis, Sweeney had begun a regiment of chemotherapy that had a number of unpleasant side effects.
“In the beginning of my treatment, I had to go four times a week,” Sweeney stated. “I would get very sick to my stomach.”
“It was pretty bad at the start,’ said James Van Ness, Sweeney’s father. “Just about anything would make her nauseous. Joyce couldn’t keep down anything she drank or eat. Even if she smelled something, she would get sick.”
Another result was of Sweeney’s medical treatment was the loss of her hair. She now wears a bandanna to cover her baldness.
Sweeney also had to leave school, which she said she had been enjoying a lot. Since she was diagnosed with acute lymphoma, Sweeney’s education has been provided by a tutor.
“A lot of friends still come to see me,” said Sweeney. “I also made a lot of friends at the model school.”
At the Barbizon School, Sweeney learned not only make up and proper posture, she learned good manners.
“I learned the right way to behave in restaurants and to cover your mouth when you cough,” said Sweeney, who knew all of that before, but appreciated the lessons anyway.
“We also leaned how to plan parties,” Sweeney stated. “I also learned that if you are given food at a party and you don’t like, you should eat just a little of it.”
Self-confidence was still the best thing Sweeney got from her model school experience.
“When my hair fell out, I saw everyone with a lot of hair and felt bad,” Sweeney admitted. “With the lessons, I felt better about myself.”
“A lot of people think the Make-A-Wish Foundation is for terminal children,’ said Sylvia Guarino of the Foundation. “Its not, really. The majority of the children we help, recover from their aliments.”
Guarino said the doctors who treated Sweeney at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation about Sweeney.
“We were very happy to get the model lessons for Joyce,” said Guarino. “We’ve found that children who have this chance tend to do better with their health.”
For the future, Sweeney wants to both write her autobiography and then make a film of the book. The tentative title for both is “My Recovery.”
When asked who she like to play her, Sweeney said “myself.”
“I know Halle Berry is a very good actress, but I would like to play me,” Sweeney said. “I wouldn’t want to be someone else, I only want to be me.”
To contact the Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Jersey, call (908) 964-5055. For the Lymphoma Research Foundation, call (212) 349-2910.