By Lisa Zimmerman | Engagement Insider
Former Cincinnati Bengals star running back Ickey Woods never expected that asthma would take his son’s life. An otherwise healthy, active 16-year-old, Jovante Woods was not only an outstanding cornerback on his high school football team, but was also a straight-A student with a 3.8 grade point average. His asthma, which was diagnosed when he was two years old, was seemingly being well-managed. His sudden death, brought on by a severe asthma attack following a football practice, shocked both his family and his community.
“We knew [his asthma] was to the point where he went to the hospital, but we never thought it would take his life,” Woods said. “Before it took my son from me, I didn’t know asthma could kill.”
Since being drafted by the Bengals in the second round of the 1988 NFL Draft, Woods has become a heavily entrenched member of the Cincinnati community. He and his former wife, Chandra, raised their six children there and Woods has always been involved in working and giving back to his adopted city, including through his Ickey Woods Youth Foundation.
But, his son’s death in 2010 changed the trajectory of Woods’ life. Within months of Jovante’s passing, Woods began doing research about asthma and its societal impact. He vowed that he would commit his life to doing whatever he could to help find a cure or better treatments. And with that, the Jovante Woods Foundation was launched.
“I came to find out asthma is one of the fastest growing diseases with the least amount of money,” Woods said. “We took it upon ourselves to raise money for asthma research and education to start educating people about the severity of asthma.”
According to the Allergy and Asthma Foundation, asthma currently affects approximately 25 million Americans (adults and children) and the numbers are growing. Asthma accounts for 25 percent of all hospital emergency room visits and more than 3,000 people die each year from the disease. It is estimated that the cost of treating asthma is close to $18 billion dollars annually.
Woods noted that not only is there no cure, but there hasn’t been a lot of progress in finding or developing new or better medications to improve on current treatments.
“They started giving Jovante steroids and Albuterol,” Woods recalled of his son’s treatments. “We thought we knew everything about asthma and it turns out we didn’t know anything. The doctors thought as long as he had his medicine, he would be OK. The doctors told us as much as they knew, but the doctors don’t really know anything.”
Woods reached out to the Asthma Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, which has its own research facility. In August 2015, the fifth anniversary of Jovante’s death, the Jovante Woods Foundation will donate $100,000 to Cincinnati Children’s for a research endowment in his name.
The foundation itself continues to grow and branch out in new directions, and Woods has a very specific mission and goal, which involves expanding the foundation city by city throughout the country. “We haven’t run into a lot of foundations that deal with asthma,” he said. “A lot (of foundations) deal with things like cancer and cystic fibrosis. We want to be the pioneers for asthma.”
To that end, they are developing signature programs including one they have named “Breathe Free,” which will be rolled out in some of the local Cincinnati-area schools in the 2015/2016 school year. The program encompasses physical activities as well as an education component to teach educators, coaches and others who work with children the signs of an asthma attack and what to do in the event they identify one.
The foundation has also established a partnership with Donate Life, an organization that works to increase organ donor registry. When Jovante died, his parents discovered that, unbeknownst to them, Jovante had checked the organ donor box on his driver’s permit. As a result, Jovante’s organs saved the lives of four other people. Woods has now checked that box on his own driver’s license.
While Woods misses his son every day, he is also achieving great satisfaction and gratification from the work they are now doing in his name. “When you look up and see some of your work and actions helping people, that’s the most important thing.”
For more information about the Jovante Woods Foundation: www.jovantewoodsfoundation.org
For information about the Asthma and Allergy Foundation: www.aafa.org.
For more information about Donate Life: www.donatelife.net