When Adrian Lam finished coaching a water polo game at his alma mater Tuesday night, the 2023 Naperville North High School graduate received far more than a double-digit win over Metea Valley.
The former swimmer and water polo player was presented with a trip to Hawaii for his entire family from the Nikolas Ritschel Foundation, the Rockford-based nonprofit behind Nik’s Wish, which grants the requests of those between the ages of 18 and 24 who are fighting cancer.
Lam, 19, was diagnosed in August 2023 with Burkitt lymphoma, an aggressive non-Hodgkin B-Cell cancer for which he has received about a half dozen grueling radiation treatments and was forced to delay his plans to attend the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Those challenges were temporarily forgotten Tuesday when Adrian emerged from a tunnel made up of team members dressed in Hawaiian clothing yelling, “Aloha — your wish is granted,” and then hugged his parents as tears streamed down their faces.
“I’m like super surprised and I’ve just realized how much I’m loved here,” said Adrian, wiping his eyes. “It just feels good to know people have my back even when they’re not next to me. I know that people are worried about me and want me to be OK and do well. It’s really reassuring and makes you feel really good.”
Tammy English, development director for Nik’s Wish, told those gathered about how they learned of the teen’s situation.
“We found out about Adrian thanks to a social worker or nurse navigator we reached out to, letting them know we exist,” she said. “We’ve become a resource of hope and joy for these nurses when they work with these cancer patients.”
The program is named after 17-year-old Nikolas Ritchel, who was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma and had a request granted in 2012 through the Make-A-Wish program, which “meant the absolute world to him,” English said.
“It gave him hope and something to dream of and think of,” she said. “But he met a kid during his treatment named Nate who, when Nikolas told him about his Make-A-Wish, Nate told him he was diagnosed a month after he turned 18 and didn’t qualify for a Make-A-Wish. It broke Nik’s heart and he went to his mom and said you’ve got to do something about this.”
At the time, Ritchel’s parents were focused on trying to save their son’s life but on the night before he died, he brought it up again, English said.
“He told his mom, ‘You’ve got to make sure at least Nate gets a wish,’” she said. “A couple of months after Nik passed, his mother just couldn’t get away from the feeling that she needed to do something.”
Kelli Ritschel Boehle, who founded the Nikolas Ritschel Foundation in her son’s memory, was on hand Tuesday when Adrian was told his wish had been granted.
“This is one of my favorite parts — seeing the surprise and happiness in these kids’ faces,” Ritschel Boehle said.
“For me, it’s just, I know Nik is looking down and he’s smiling too and he’s helping people through me,” she said. “Sadly, we’re only scratching the surface of people in this age group.”
Since 2012, the program has granted 335 wishes in 38 states and raised nearly $10 million.
Adrian’s parents said they learned that Adrian would be receiving his wish in late March.
“I think this meant a lot to him. It’s kind of a milestone to accomplish all this given the treatments in the past six months,” Angela Lam said. “(Adrian’s) said he missed the water so much and now he wants to learn how to surf. (This trip) will mean a lot to him. As a family it has been dreadful and emotional, and I think it will be nice for us to recover as a family in a more relaxed place and put all this behind us.”
Wilson Lam agreed the trip would help both his son and his family “given what has been a very difficult situation.”
“We are just happy to have some sort of prize at the end. We have something as a reward for the challenge we’ve been trying to meet the past six months,” he said. “We have a son, Judson, who is 20 and Adrian and we’re all going to be together.”
Adrian joked about the surprise with team members, admitting that “you guys got me good.”
“Everyone here who came to help me do this — I know it feels weird to say ‘I had cancer’ and it still feels kind of weird now — but I can’t believe how far I’ve gone,” he said. “I wouldn’t have gotten here without these guys. I’ve had such hard times in the hospital. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep — I was so miserable. I’m so thankful to be with all you guys right now.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
