Nick Konkler is a young man of few words, a steady fire.

Until somebody mentions tires, camshafts, cars. Then watch the eyes flash, the step quicken, the confidence leap. Must be some sort of high-octane fuel additive in those words.

“My whole life has been around cars — first my grandpa, then there’s my dad’s friend from high school who has his own business working on them,” said the 14-year-old Auburn Riverside High School freshman. “I’m a car nut.”

Better believe it. Nick’s practically jumping out of his shoes to get at the car his father, Vince, recently bought for him. He gets his learner’s permit in April. Until then, this first car that one day will live in his memory sleeps in the garage.

Nick plans to attend WyoTech in Sacramento, Calif., where he’ll learn all about cars. Fabricating car parts, that’s his dream job.

That he’s here to dream dreams at all is a miracle.

Ten years in remission from a brain tumor, Konkler’s also 3 1/2 years past the bone marrow transplant that checked his lethal secondary leukemia. Doctors told the family that they believe the chemotherapy they’d sicced on the brain tumor seven years earlier caused the blood cancer.

Neither Nick nor his parents, Vince and Christina Konkler, have forgotten, won’t ever forget, can’t forget just what all the money that caring people poured into leukemia research did for Nick.

That’s why the family is preparing for The Leukemia Lymphoma Society of Western Washington’s “Big Climb” in Seattle’s Columbia Tower on Sunday. The annual event raises money for research and provides support services for families whose loved ones are suffering from leukemia.

That day, Konkler’s mother and father and three of his father’s coworkers in the City of Auburn’s Maintenance and Operations Department will ascend 69 flights of stairs, 1,311 steps, 765 vertical feet in all.

For the team, which calls itself Nick’s Flight Crew, this will be its second go at the Big Climb. Four will walk, two will run.

“We did it in 28 minutes last year, and his dad, who ran, did it in 14,” said Christina. “As for the three other climbers, this is their first year. They were really excited. We wanted a bigger team, but we signed up late. They cap the climb at 6,000 climbers, and it sold out a month ago, so we only have six on our team this year. But those other three have been very supportive of us through this whole process when it started 10 years ago.”

The event lasts all day. Each team gets a climbing time, and Nick’s Flight Crew goes at 3:15 that afternoon.

“There are two stairwells. One is the runners’ stairwell, and there is no walking or stopping, you just run. Vince and a co-worker will be in the runners stairwell, the rest of us will be in the climber’s stairwell. In the climber’s stairwell, you go at your own pace. They have water stations, and you can stop and get a drink and catch your breath,” said Christina.

Anybody who wants to sponsor any of the team members should go to thebigclimb.org, click on participant and type in the name of the person they want to sponsor.

“They can just make a $1 dollar donation, a $5 donation, whatever the budget allows. Every dollar counts,” said Christina Konkler.

So of course, everybody, including Nick, is in training for the coming ordeal?

Not really.

“That’s the sick part,” said Christina Konkler. “I train for two weeks before this, I walk the parkway and up the trail every day, and this little stinker here doesn’t train at all. He kept pace with me the whole way last year. It was such a hard climb. It’s not a walk in the park. Towards the top, in particular, you get pretty worn out. But there he was, the Energizer Bunny, going and going.”

“I don’t get that fatigued climbing or walking,” Nick said.

“He sleeps more. Teens sleep a lot, but he sleeps more,” said Christina Konkler. “He deals with fatigue by getting just a lot more sleep.

“The only way to prevent this from happening to other people’s kids is research. If we can’t find a cure, kids are still going to get sick. Lots of kids have more side affects than Nick does. We’re very fortunate. It’s just a horrible, horrible disease for kids and parents, and the only way to stop it is to find a cure, and that takes money.”