The 25-year-old Willow Glen resident died Sept. 16 from complications from Wilms' tumor, a form of recurring kidney cancer, that he battled on and off since first being diagnosed at age 6.

Although he went through chemotherapy at 6 and 9 years old, had a kidney transplant when he was 18 years old and underwent more chemotherapy at age 23, D.J. never let his situation bring him down because he loved life, his family and friends say.

"He had such a positive attitude that it rubbed off on people," his girlfriend, Helen Allrich, says. D.J. and Allrich met their sophomore year at Santa Clara University and have been dating the last five years.

Allrich calls him her best friend and says, "He really loved life and he wanted to do everything to the fullest."

Since she's known him, Allrich has watched D.J. run with the Olympic torch at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah and film a scene as a doctor on the set of the television show ER, which was later cut. The couple also traveled to Utah together to attend the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

D.J.'s father, Dave Frandsen, says he remembers a son who loved the San Francisco Giants, going to the beach and sailing with his Uncle Tom.

Frandsen says what he'll remember the most is D.J.'s passion for his younger brother, Kevin, whose baseball career with the San Jose Giants is taking off.

"When things were bad, he'd still try to make it to Kevin's games," Frandsen says. "He'd finish chemotherapy or a blood transfusion and go straight from the hospital. When he cared about something it was immense."

He adds that D.J. lived by the sayings, "Go the distance," from the baseball movie Field of Dreams, and a quote by Jim Valvano, "Don't give up. Never give up." Valvano was a basketball coach at North Carolina State who also died from cancer.

Frandsen says that D.J. "pulled off a lot of miracles" mainly by keeping his positive outlook on life.

"He got through things because he always expected to beat it," his father says. "There was never a doubt in his mind that he'd see the next day, whether in the ICU or at home."

Frandsen says he was awestruck to see the number of people that D.J.'s life had touched at the Sept. 21 funeral Mass at the Santa Clara University Mission.

"There were well over 1,200 people," Frandsen says. "D.J. always made you feel good; he never dwelt on his problems."

He adds that D.J. was constantly helping others, whether it was volunteering for the Pat Tillman Foundation this summer or creating high school sports team websites.

Frandsen says there has been a "tremendous outpouring" of support from the Willow Glen, Bellarmine College Preparatory and Santa Clara University communities.

D.J. attended Booksin Elementary School and Willow Glen Middle School as well as playing in the Lincoln Glen Little League as a child.

In high school at Bellarmine, D.J. played on the varsity tennis team as a sophomore. He received a partial tennis scholarship to attend Loyola Marymount University, but stayed closer to home by studying at Santa Clara University because of the onset of another tumor. While at Santa Clara, he studied finance and managed the men's basketball team.

"D.J. was a sports nut," says Santa Clara University basketball coach Dick Davey. "He was highly competitive. He was a big supporter of our dreams of going to the NCAA tournament, but when we didn't make it, he was still there."

Davey says D.J. taught the players about not complaining or making excuses in life.

"He would complain about players not hanging up their uniforms, but I never heard him say anything about his problems," Davey says. "He was a coach in many respects."

His father agrees. He says D.J. liked to attend Little League games and give the children pointers, even recently still giving tips to his brother Kevin. D.J. also helped coach Leland High School's girls' tennis team during college.

"He was born to be a teacher, but he wanted to make a million dollars," Frandsen says. "He didn't get to do everything in life that he wanted to, but he did most of it."