J.R. Wallace takes time off of work Wednesdays to be with his son Donovan, 12, and his daughter Julia, 8. Wallace received many letters of appreciation from students whose classes he spoke to about his experiences. (Sean McGowan photo)

J.R. Wallace recalls the day he received his cancer diagnosis like it was yesterday — this month marks the five-year anniversary of his most difficult time in life.

His wife, DeAnn, sat with him in the doctor’s office in Belleville in 2010, awaiting the results of a biopsy that became necessary when Wallace discovered a lump in his neck.

“The doctor came in and handed me a packet, and said, ‘You have cancer, and it’s this,’” Wallace said. “My wife started bawling because she had went through that with her dad, who had cancer. I felt numb to the whole situation.”

Wallace, 42, of Waterloo, began with seven rounds of treatment for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma at Illinois Oncology Ltd. in Swansea. After the cancer became worse, he went to Barnes-Jewish Hospital where the doctor recommended a bone marrow transplant.

J.R. Wallace demonstrates to biology students at Waterloo High School the science behind his fight with cancer during a visit this past spring. (Kermit Constantine photo)

BeTheMatch.org, The National Marrow Donor Program’s website, states that donors match with patients based on their human leukocyte antigen tissue type.

“HLA are proteins, or markers, found on most cells in your body,” the website explains.

In Wallace’s case, he received a bone marrow transplant from the stem cells in his own body. Not everyone can do this.

“You have to donate at least 5 million stem cells to get a transplant, and I gave 13.7 million,” he said. “I joke about this because I tell people I’m an overachiever.”

The stem cells are able to travel through the body to where they need to go within four days of a transplant. For Wallace, six days had passed, and he remained extremely ill.

“I had no blood count,” he recalled. “I remember that whole time feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom, and I couldn’t.”

The doctors soon found out that Wallace developed a perforated colon and put him in a coma to perform surgery. He was asleep for a total of eight days.

“Several things happened while I was out,” he said. “I was incubated to help me breathe. My kidneys had shut down and was put on dialysis, and I went into (atrial fibrillation) and was shocked back into rhythm.”

Atrial fibrillation is an irregular heartbeat that can cause heart failure, among other complications.

When Wallace woke up, he was in a state of confusion. He would later find out he was mere hours away from death.

“I woke up with no idea what happened,” he said. “When you lose a week of your life, that’s scary.”

From different operations, Wallace ended up losing half of his large intestine and 14 inches of his small intestine. A surgery was also performed in 2011 to hook his intestines together.

His road to recovery would continue through 2011 into May 2012, when he finally returned to work as co-manager of Schneider’s Quality Meats. His final treatment of taking antibiotics went six to eight weeks beginning in February, after which Wallace would journey toward a new life purpose.

“I felt like I should be doing something for kids,” he said, though he didn’t immediately know what.

That is until Waterloo High School science teacher Lisa Breithaupt heard his story and was moved to ask him to speak in front of her class.

“It’s funny because it’s something I never thought of myself,” Wallace said, adding, “My life was spared for a reason, and for that I am giving back by telling my story of hope and faith.”

Four years later, he continues to do just that in several classrooms, including to the class of WHS science teacher Jennifer Durako. He even began speaking this spring at Red Bud High School to the class of science teacher Julie Lewis.

“I’ve had students come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for sharing. I thought I wanted to be a doctor. Now, I know I have to be,’” he said. “You give up one day, and you hear that back, it makes it worthwhile.”

He tells his story to classes in about a 40-minute period, and sometimes the graphic descriptions he gives can feel all too real.

“I’ve toned it down a lot because I’m tired of seeing kids pass out in the middle of class,” Wallace said.

Even more rewarding for Wallace is the time he gets to spend with his wife and kids. Wallace has a 12-year-old son named Donovan and his 8-year-old daughter Julia, both of whom he spends time with Wednesdays on his day off from work.

Julia was only 2 at the time he went through the worst of his illnesses. But thanks to a successful cancer battle, Wallace and Julia can enjoy time together doing her favorite activity.

“I like to go and see the Blues,” she said.

Donovan saw his dad’s story as an inspiration, and he raised $1,200 in 2013 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in St. Louis.

“I was mainly motivated to do that because of my dad, but even so, I would’ve wanted to help out a little bit,” Donovan said.

The society uses a bulk of funds raised to find cures and ensure access to treatments for blood cancers.

For more information, visit LLS.org.

Wallace is now a major supporter of BeTheMatch.org because of what he went through and also thinks twice about people going through a similar predicament.

“There was a woman in the hospital with me who had leukemia and didn’t get well enough to have a stem-cell transplant,” he said. “She left three kids at age 33. If my eyes weren’t open before, they are now. I still think about her at times.”