CHRIS HARTLEIN -- BEATING CANCER; HART

Chris and his girlfriend, Shelly Ponder.

Three weeks ago 19-year-old Chris Hartlein had no idea he had cancer.

He did know he hadn't been feeling well since late last year. He had been coughing and having trouble breathing, symptoms that were originally diagnosed as a sinus infection.

And Chris thought he had little reason to worry. After all, he had always been a healthy and strong young man, having played football and participating as a member of the wrestling team while he attended Jackson High School.

"And then he just started losing a lot of weight," said his girlfriend of three years, Shelly Ponder, who said he has gone from over 200 pounds to about 160 pounds since he first began to feel sick.

Then on Feb. 13, disaster struck when Chris was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a chronic malignant disorder of lymph nodes. Symptoms vary, but often include an enlargement of one or more of the lymph nodes, particularly in the neck region. Usually fatigue follows, loss of weight and fever.

Looking through the photo album that she has kept since she was first asked to a movie by Chris, one would hardly believe that handsome, smiling face would ever be faced with such a tragedy.

"I never thought I would ever have anything like this happen to me," Chris said. "It's been really hard on me. My social life -- and I was athletic -- it's destroyed that."

But the battle is far from over.

"Of course he's going to fight it," Ponder says. "He's been tired lately, but he's also been real positive."

For the last several days Chris and his mother, Linda Roberts, have been in Houston at the University of Texas MD Anderson Center which specializes in treating all forms of cancer.

"It's been a hard couple of days," Chris said in a phone interview from the hotel in Houston where he and his mother have been staying. "They've been running a lot of tests that have kind of been painful."

His mother said sleep has been hard coming. She has had to take several days off from her job as a dispatcher for the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department.

She said when she learned her son had Hodgkin's disease, a doctor told her about the wonderful work done at the MD Anderson Center.

"He said if I didn't take Chris here, I would regret it for the rest of my life," she said. "So here we are."

Chris says his next course of action is to find out what the doctor says after the test and react accordingly.

"Basically, I'm just going to do whatever they tell me to do," he said. "They're going to determine if, and how much, chemotherapy I need, and I'm just going to do whatever I have to."

Fortunately, Chris is only in the second stage of Hodgkin's and that means that the cancer is still contained to one side of the body -- it hasn't crossed over or spread. This is definitely good news for Chris and his family.

Studies show that the majority of patients with stage 1- or 2-A Hodgkin's can be cured with radiation and chemotherapy.

Which makes those around Christopher happy. Christopher seems to have touched these people, and they aren't reluctant to sing his praises.

"That kid wouldn't do anybody wrong," said Dale Burrows, whose son, Brett, is Chris' best friend. "He was always there for my son.

"My son is in the Navy, and when he heard about Chris, he made plans to get home as soon as he could."

Chris' mom, Linda Spencer, sings his praises louder than the rest.

"Last summer, Christopher saved my life," Spencer said. "If it weren't for him, I would have died."

She speaks of an event that happened while she and Chris were both mowing separate parts of the lawn, Chris was in front, Spencer in the back.

Spencer accidentally disturbed a birdhouse and was surprised to find that bees -- not birds -- were taking shelter there. They came out and attacked in full force.

Not that big a deal, unless you're allergic to them, like Spencer is.

Chris knew this and, when he heard his mother's shouts, he came to the rescue, despite the fact that the bees were stinging him as well as he pulled her from the angry swarm.

"They kept stinging him while he was helping me," Spencer said. "He actually took more stings than I did."

Holding back tears, Spencer said she was blessed with a good son whom she is very close to.

"If I could trade places with him, I would."

But that isn't necessary, Spencer is more than confident that her son will beat the disease.

"Oh yes, he will," she said, calling him what everyone seems to call him.

"He's a fighter."