'Coming to terms' with cancer

Manuel "Manny" Cruz says he's unsure how long his "shelf life" is, but he knows his biggest fear as he faces inoperable lung cancer.

How to help

Friends of the Cruzes will hold an event and fundraiser from 5 to 7p.m. today at Culinary Dropout at The Yard, 5632 N. Seventh St., Phoenix. Donations are being accepted, with checks payable to the Manny Cruz Fund. Donations also can be mailed to 7604 W. Claremont St., Glendale, AZ, 85303-4212, or deposited at any US Bank location, account number 151705573393.

It's leaving behind Jessica, his 6-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome.

Cruz, a Democrat who narrowly lost the Glendale mayor's race to Jerry Weiers last year, had launched his second campaign for state mine inspector when he was diagnosed in September with cancer in his lungs, spine and shoulder. He later learned that it had spread to his brain.

"It's surreal," said Cruz, a 47-year-old Arizona native. "But, you know, I'm coming to terms with it."

In the weeks since the diagnoses, campaign talk has been pushed aside. Cruz has compiled a "cancer book," which includes his appointments, lists of medications and definitions of words he had not heard before Sept.6.

During an interview at the kitchen table of his central Glendale home, Cruz contemplated what, by any measure, is a short future -- he says his doctors say from six months to two years, depending on how he responds to treatment -- with grace, humor and gratitude.

His tall frame now lanky from shedding 50 pounds in two months, he spoke softly and slowly about his professional career in mining and his political life, and lit up as he talked about his family and showed photos of Jessica, his "little silly."

Cruz is battling the cancer, recently completing 10 radiation treatments to shrink the brain lesions and undergoing daylong chemotherapy sessions every three weeks in hopes of prolonging his time with wife Valerie Revering, daughter Jessica and their four older children.

"Hey, you know, I'm not done yet. We've got things to do," Cruz said. "There's a wedding to plan. There are kids to take to the different events at their schools."

Stepson Chris will be married in April, and Molly, 15, -- "my little brainiac" -- is in her school's production of "The Tempest."Daughter Kim, 26, is attending Arizona State University after a four-year stint in the Navy. She has been a key source of support for her father, helping with Jessica, household chores and driving on the days when nausea and exhaustion take over.

"I've been truly blessed, with great family, great friends and a good life," he said. "And a great career that I absolutely loved, and to still be able to help people, help communities and give back."

Cruz is a fourth-generation Arizonan who worked in the mining industry. He's been active in the Democratic Party for years, but he only recently entered politics, with an unsuccessful 2010 run for mine inspector against Republican Joe Hart.

His grandfather worked the Ray Copper Mine, now owned by ASARCO, and died in his 30s of black-lung disease. Cruz's father told boyhood stories of handing out water to miners as they trudged out of the pit, before the towns of Ray and Sonora were wiped off the map by the original mining company.

Cruz's parents campaigned for Nixon and his political activism was shaped, in part, by them. His mother, Sally, changed her registration to Democrat to vote for her son in 2010, and spent hours working on his campaigns.

Cruz was honored Saturday with the chairman's award at the Arizona Democratic Party's annual Hall of Fame induction. He will be celebrated at an event today at the Culinary Dropout in Phoenix, which also serves as a fundraiser.

Arizona Democratic Party Chairman Bill Roe said Cruz was a tireless campaigner, and his mother was every bit as enthusiastic, even when they knew the registration numbers and the funding were stacked against them.

"He worked extraordinarily hard and energized a lot of people in two different races," Roe said.

After he lost to Hart in 2012, Cruz made good on a campaign promise and launched the non-profit Abandoned Mine Safety, which raised money to educate schoolchildren about the dangers of abandoned mines, and to close down some of the thousands of dangerous shafts scattered across the state.

After a tough loss to Weiers in the mayor's race, by about 4,000 votes, Cruz went back to work and soon started thinking about the 2014 race for mine inspector. Hart had served two terms and couldn't run again, and few people had both the qualifications and the interest to do the job.

"I had a really good feeling that this might be the year that I won that election," Cruz said.

In September, after a week of coughing and shortness of breath, Cruz saw his family physician.

"It doesn't look like it's anything we're going to be able to fix," Cruz said the doctor told him.

Now, instead of a campaign run, he's planning a video that he will record for Jessica.

She doesn't understand his condition, he said. When he coughs, Jessica runs over to pat him on the back.

He worries about Jessica, and about her mother. "One of the biggest things is knowing she needs that extra help. This little one right here," he says, "was going to be with us for the rest of our lives."

But he's at peace with himself.

"I believe that I'll be leaving this world a little bit better than when I got here."

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