Showing leadership, courage in the fight against brain cancer April 29, 2011|Antonio Fins, SUN SENTINEL EDITORIAL

PAGE EDITOR It can be easy to be a leader when fate is smiling on you and times are good. It's a different question altogether to show selfless leadership when you are face-to-face with your own mortality.

Earlier this month, on April 14, the organization Voices Against Brain Cancer awarded its Courage Award to Antonio "Tony" Goitia. Tony was diagnosed two years ago with glioblastoma, a malignant form of brain cancer.

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What had to be a stunning, crushing diagnosis didn't stop him even after the doctor breaking the news did so with an ominous question, "What if I told you that you only had months to live?"

Instead, Tony fought back, seeking information, studying remedy options and then undergoing treatment with nothing short of full determination and resolve. Then he joined up with philanthropist Mario Lichtenstein and Voices to raise awareness and funding for brain cancer research.

And to let those also afflicted know they are not alone. That's just as critical as the money and the research.

So, as he fought his own battle, Tony has reached out to others who also got the life-changing diagnosis, offering advice, pep talks and injecting them with the same willpower. He'll be doing more of that Friday night, with many other cancer survivors, at the American Cancer Society Relay For Life event at Walter C. Young Middle School in Pembroke Pines.

Looking back, it's not surprising, because he's always been a civic leader. I know this because Tony Goitia is my cousin.

In the 1990s, Tony, then in his 30s, was chosen president of the group that organizes the annual Calle 8 festival. By then, the festival, held every March, had become an international event that drew close to a million people to Miami's Little Havana.

Back then, I was proud that one from our "Westchester gang," those of us who grew up in the western Miami-Dade community, had gotten so far, so quickly. And especially that it was someone I had grown up with, though admittedly Tony had been much closer to my older brother, Frank.

But the real reason I have written this column is because I wanted to shine 500 words worth of attention on someone who is truly deserving of it.

The public's attention, and the news we cover, is so often focused on self-absorbed people who gain attention for boorish and outrageous behavior. Last Saturday, for example, thousands of people paid to listen to Charlie Sheen spout off, a show that garnered much hype not because of Sheen's acting talents but for his recent bizarre behavior.

There won't be half as many people tonight at the Relay event. But those who do show up will get a much better example of leadership and inspiration from Tony and the many other cancer survivors in attendance.