CANCER SURVIVOR FINDS LINKS TO LIFE THROUGH GOLF, SHIFFMAN DEALS WITH UNCERTAINTY AND PAIN OF ILLNESS.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer

WESTLAKE VILLAGE - The swing, fluid and powerful, sent the golf ball soaring down the middle of the driving range.

``Spencer, why can't I hit like that?'' Diane Sharlin asked her son.

Spencer Shiffman once fired similar queries. At his doctors. His golfing buddies. His mom. And himself. A decade-long battle with cancer tormented him, weakened him, probably should have killed him.

His close friendship with Cal State Northridge baseball player Tim Arroyo offered an escape from the pain and prospect of death. When Arroyo's CSUN career ended last June, there were no more articles to clip and paste into a series of scrapbooks he later presented to Arroyo.

It seemed all that was left was uncertainty about Shiffman's fate. The courage and determination that continues to prove the experts wrong never has been questioned.

``I'm driven to live a life that I haven't had for many years,'' Shiffman said Tuesday over a plate of pancakes after hitting a bucket of balls at Westlake Village Golf Course. ``The fact that I wasn't supposed to see 34 when I was diagnosed at (age) 33. And I certainly wasn't supposed to see 40. And it was unheard of that I'm even seeing 42. But here I am.''

On Saturday at Tarzana's El Caballero Country Club, the aptly named ``Spirit of Life'' award will be presented to Shiffman by City of Hope. And it's not a posthumous ceremony. He's gaining weight, traveling, playing golf and raising money for cancer research even with the rare cancerous strain of peritoneal mesothelioma still attacking his body.

``We're all amazed,'' said Lisa Edwards, an oncology nurse at Encino- Tarzana Regional Medical Center who helped care for Shiffman during dozens of stays.

Some of those were feared to be his final days, including February 2002, when Shiffman's family went so far as ordering a casket.

Things remained grim June 1 of that year, when CSUN's baseball team played USC in the NCAA Tournament. Shiffman sat in the hot sun at Dedeaux Field watching his favorite player, Arroyo. The Matadors lost to the Trojans and had to come back for an elimination game against Brigham Young.

``I had nothing left,'' said Shiffman, too drained and weak to stick around for what turned out to be Arroyo's final college game. Save for a short stint playing for an independent team in Canton, Ohio, Arroyo's baseball career was at the time over.

For the previous four springs, Shiffman spent his idle time working on Tim's scrapbooks. It was a diversion that kept him moving forward. Chemotherapy was zapping him of his energy. He was enduring a scary bout with pneumonia.

But he longed to get back on the golf course, the ultimate irony considering the first sign of a second round of cancer was revealed almost 10 years earlier when he felt sharp pain in his side taking a practice swing on the first tee.

``The last thing I did before I got sick was swing a golf club,'' he said. ``And one of the first things I did when I started is swing a golf club. I realized if I wanted to live, I was going to play golf again.''

He had tagged along with one of his best friends, Mike Nubel, during several rounds. Watching from the cart became too tempting, though. So he started modestly, chipping a pitching wedge at the El Cab driving range. Then came longer iron shots, and finally he hit off the tee with a driver. He played nine excruciating holes at Lakeside in Toluca Lake with Nubel when he felt comfortable enough.

``What's that saying about the joy of pain? It was a wonderful kind of pain because I was able to (play golf),'' he said of his first few games.

A 14-handicap before he got sick, Shiffman registered as a 25-handicap when he began to play again. Nubel, with whom he worked at a real estate company, was planning a fall business/golfing trip to Hawaii and invited Shiffman. The stress of the long plane ride and the excitement concerned his mother.

``I didn't want him to go,'' Sharlin said. ``I didn't think he was up to it.''

When most of the traveling group was at the local bars, Shiffman was sleeping in his hotel room. But he somehow got through three rounds of golf and a boat cruise between the islands of Maui and Lanai.

Taking in the tropical scene reminded Shiffman of ``the closest point to being in heaven than being in the hospital because it was so beautiful.''

A lifelong fan of Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway, who graduated from Granada Hills High the same year Shiffman graduated from Cleveland of Reseda, Shiffman also couldn't say no when friend Dave Cressman dangled a trip to Denver to see the Broncos play the Oakland Raiders on ``Monday Night Football.''

``For so many years we've seen him, he seemed too weak and sick to do any of this stuff,'' Edwards said. ``There were times when things looked so grim. He's been through so much and he's a remarkable guy. He's always kept the best attitude.''

He's not the only one. Sharlin rarely has had anything but the best outlook. And when she even came to the conclusion Spencer's pain and suffering had run its course, she wasn't alone.

``Joe Pesci came to visit me in the hospital,'' Shiffman said of the Academy Award-winning actor and golfing partner. ``He said, `Spencer, you're not supposed to be here. Get out of this bed.' I said, `OK Joe.' ''

Said Sharlin, ``You need a cheerleader. I have envisioned that he would be exactly as he is now.''

He weighed just 140 pounds in May of last year, when he was profiled in a Daily News story. Today, he's 15 pounds heavier and can eat solid food - like pancakes - even though his weakened digestive system once rejected such meals. He attributes increased energy to taking coral calcium nutrients from Okinawa.

When he's strong enough to play a round of golf, 18 holes, even on a cart, it is difficult to get through. He still takes daily doses of Dilaudidto to numb the pain. But it's a quality of life that appeared unrealistic 15 months ago.

``He's persevered,'' Edwards said. ``He's brave, optimistic, but he's always thinking about others.''

That's why he and PGA Tour pro Duffy Waldorf, a friend, plan to bring back the National Childhood Cancer Foundation golf tournament. Two years ago, Shiffman raised $62,000 from the tournament.

Shiffman also recently met the new president of the National Childhood Cancer Foundation and was asked to go to Washington and address Congress to seek more funding for cancer research.

``In my life I've been through peaks and valleys,'' Shiffman said. ``And being in the lowest part of my life, to almost days from death, to getting out on the golf course, to being able to speak to Congress for more funding, that would be the epitome of life. The greatest situation I can ever have.''

Chris Cocoles, [phone]

chris.cocoles(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Spencer Shiffman will receive the ``Spirit of Life'' award Saturday.

(2) Spencer Shiffman, with support of his mother Diane Sharlin, has fought a long battle with cancer.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(3) Following the career of Cal State Northridge baseball player Tim Arroyo, left, provided an escape for Spencer Shiffman.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer