A Worldwide Support Network For Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia
Posted by rob on April 30, 2005 under Uncategorized | 
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A seven-year-old model prepared by stylist Yulia Kirichenko is pictured during the first open championship of hairdressers art, decorative cosmetics, modelling and nail design at Siberian fashion week in the city of Krasnoyarsk
Posted by rob on April 29, 2005 under Uncategorized | Read the First Comment
Brent Zell
Argus Leader
Published: 04/29/05 1:55 am
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ON THE WEB |
When Tri-Valley senior basketball player Jay Tennessen began his fight against leukemia, one of his goals was to attend his high school graduation.
Just more than one week after undergoing a bone-marrow transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., Tennessen’s prospects for attending the May 15 ceremony are looking good.
The transplant was a success, and the aftermath also has been positive. After taking three post-transplant rounds of chemotherapy, doctors recently determined that Tennessen’s health has progressed to the point where a fourth round isn’t needed.His doctors told him that as long as his recovery stays on course, Tennessen, who is from Lyons, will be attending Tri-Valley’s graduation with his classmates.
“So far, I’m feeling good,” said Tennessen, who has been in Rochester since March 31. “I have a few episodes of nausea, but I take medicine that controls it pretty well.”Tennessen was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in September. The diagnosis kept him off the football field, but the doctors allowed him to try basketball.
At first, the Tri-Valley coaches weren’t sure how much Tennessen would be able to play, but he blossomed into the team’s No. 2 scorer, leading the Mustangs to a fourth-place finish at the Class A state tournament in Rapid City and earning all-tourney honors for himself.
Originally, the family hoped to put off the transplant until after graduation, but health conditions necessitated an April operation.Fortunately, a suitable bone marrow donor was right in the family. Jay’s older brother, Tony, had stem cells harvested April 11 in Rochester. The process took stem cells from Tony’s sternum.
Tony felt some pain in his chest after the surgery, according to Tim Tennessen, Tony and Jay’s father, but the hurt was worth the result. Doctors hoped to harvest 5 million stem cells, but ended up with 7.5 million.”We’re really proud of what he did,” said Tim Tennessen. “He never questioned what it would be like or anything. Wherever you told him to go, he was ready to be there.”
Following several rounds of chemotherapy, Jay received the transplant cells through an intravenous tube on April 20. The procedure took about 40 minutes.
Side effects from the chemotherapy have included fatigue, some nausea and a sore mouth. All are common with this type of treatment.”So far, my mouth isn’t too bad,” Jay said. “There are a few sores, but it’s not as bad as some people can get.”
Jay and his mother, Cindy, have been staying at the Gift of Life Transplant House in Rochester, a converted mansion that houses transplant patients close to the clinic. Jay’s day starts at 9 a.m. with an appointment to have his blood checked. Occasionally, he has needed a blood transfusion to increase his platelet count to further the fight against leukemia.Jay has been keeping up with his school work via e-mail and the phone, according to Tri-Valley superintendent Terry Eckstaine, and he is on pace to fulfill his graduation requirements.
When no transfusions are needed, the family can leave the house.
However, anytime Jay is outside the house and clinic area, he must wear a surgical mask to ward off possible infection.If Jay makes it to the Tri-Valley graduation, he still will need to return to Rochester for further treatment.
The family has been impressed with the outpouring of support for Jay. That has included visits from family and friends, but also help from strangers. A collection taken in the crowd at the Class A tourney in Rapid City raised $6,200 for the family. Leukemia survivors also have been in contact with the family.”It’s not just people we don’t know, but it’s other people who are suffering through leukemia and can have such a positive outlook,” said Tim Tennessen.
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050429/NEWS03/504290336/1001/NEWS
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Even insured workers can find themselves on the hook for thousands of dollars, often at a time when illness has decreased their income.
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Few workers realize the limits of their insurance until the bills start coming for: policies that don’t cover rehabilitation care or limit it to a few visits; expensive drugs that come with a 20% charge, rather than a $20 co-pay; separate deductibles for drugs and medical care; doctors at “in-network” hospitals that aren’t members of the insurer’s network, leaving patients vulnerable to thousands of dollars in bills; annual “out-of-pocket maximums” that aren’t always true ceilings on expenses.
Such costs can quickly add up. A drug co-payment of 20%, for example, could cost thousands a year for patients taking some cancer drugs. Avastin, a colon cancer drug, recently went on the market at a price of more than $4,000 a month. Erbitux, another colon cancer treatment, can cost $12,000 or more for a month’s treatment. Gleevec, for leukemia, is more than $2,000 a month.
That’s the reality for Rita Wirsch, a 55-year-old clerical worker in Hamilton, Ohio, who is struggling to pay off about $10,000 in medical bills that her insurance did not cover. The total added up over four years, bill by bill, in amounts from $25 to more than $400 a pop. Three months on disability pay this year after surgery put her further behind.
“I thank God every day that I have insurance,” says Wirsch. “But there’s a problem in the U.S. for hard-working people.”
And it isn’t likely to change.
More workers are facing larger medical bills as employers increase what they must pay for doctor visits, drugs and hospital care in an effort to control health care costs. Some employers are embracing high-deductible policies — requiring workers to pay $1,000 or more a year in expenses before insurance kicks in. Such policies are also common for the self-employed, who buy their own insurance, because premiums are generally lower.
Shifting more costs to the insured is having ripple effects. Hospitals are collecting more upfront from patients, after being left with bad debt by insured patients who failed to pay their deductibles. Insured patients are also attracting charity efforts: The Patient Advocate Foundation, for example, has a program aimed solely at helping insured patients make the co-payments on their prescription drugs. The group pays up to $2,500 annually toward drug co-payments for qualified patients with four conditions: the eye disease macular degeneration, and cancers of the breast, lung or prostate.
“The fully insured middle-class people who become ill with critical or life-threatening illnesses, it can completely ruin their financial health,” says Beth Darnley, chief program officer for the foundation.
Limits of insurance
Many Americans are not prepared. Whether struggling to meet mortgage costs, college tuition and other expenses — or simply buying all the latest gadgets — few are saving enough to weather unexpected bad times. The personal savings rate, the difference between what people earn and what they spend, fell for the second-straight year in 2004 to the lowest level since 1934.
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But it isn’t just catastrophic illness or accident that leads to financial stress. For some, ordinary medical problems can lead to seemingly insurmountable bills.
“Families are paying more and more for health insurance that covers them less and less,” says Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor and co-author of a recent study of bankruptcy filings in five states. The study concluded that medical bills contributed to half of all personal bankruptcies.
The bills, coupled with a low savings rate for most American families, tip about 1 million into bankruptcy each year, Warren says. The average out-of-pocket medical debt for those who filed is about $12,000, and 68% had health insurance at the time of their bankruptcy filing.
Things might soon get tougher for some families. Federal bankruptcy legislation that goes into effect in six months could require many people to repay all or part of their debts, including medical bills.
Some have questioned the bankruptcy study findings. Greg Scandlen a policy analyst with the Galen Institute, a free-market health care research group, says the definition of medical bankruptcy in the study was so broad that the results are not useful in determining whether medical bills were the main source of families’ financial troubles or a small part.
“I’m not denying at all that there’s a problem out there, but this study doesn’t tell us anything about the dimensions of that problem,” Scandlen said.
Several thousand dollars in charges might not sink a highly paid worker, but the middle class and those on the lower end of the pay scale can find themselves spending a significant share of their income on medical care.
A recent report by the Center for Studying Health System Change found that the proportion of low-income, chronically ill patients who were insured but still spent more than 5% of their income on health costs rose from 28% to 42% from 2001 to 2003. The study defined low income as being below 200% of the poverty line, or about $36,800 for a family of four in 2003.
“Bankruptcy is just the tip of the iceberg: 29 million Americans are in medical debt,” says Jennifer Edwards of the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports research on health and social issues.
A recent Commonwealth study defined those in medical debt as paying bills to health care providers or having large credit card debt or loans against their homes related to medical costs.
Of those, 70% were insured when they got the health care that put them in debt, and nearly half had used up all or most of their savings, Edwards said.
Stretching to pay bills
As do many families, Wirsch recently tapped her retirement fund to help pay the bills.
She has a good clerical job at a Fortune 500 company, earning nearly $13 an hour. And it comes with insurance: a policy with a $2,000 annual deductible for medical and hospital care. Starting this year, the plan added a separate $2,000 deductible for drugs.
This year, she had to take three months off, living on a reduced income from disability payments, while recovering from surgery.
The surgery bills are now added to what she owes from past medical treatments. Her share of the surgeon’s bill: $480. Bills for physical therapy: $155. Prescription refills: $25 to $40. She takes 14 pills a day for diabetes, fibromyalgia, which is a painful muscle condition, and intestinal problems. She asks for free samples from her doctor to help make ends meet.
She now has $5,800 in credit card debt that she says is all from medical bills. Wirsch says she’s making payments on the card, sometimes $10 a month: “That will take me till I’m 100 to pay off.”
Still, she appreciates her health insurance and knows her employer has paid far more than she has.
“Since I started working there 14 years ago, they’ve probably paid out over $80,000 in medical bills for me,” says Wirsch.
Warren says that many of the people in her study of bankruptcies were dealing with non-catastrophic medical problems.
In her study, one man, who was not named, filed for bankruptcy after hurting his knee in a fall. At first he wasn’t worried because he had insurance, which paid 80% of his hospital and surgeon’s bills. But his coverage left him responsible for physical therapy costs, crutches, braces and all drugs.
“His out-of-pocket expenses ran to $12,000,” says Warren. “It wasn’t medically catastrophic, but it was financially catastrophic.”
For Andrea Talaga, 42, of Bolingbrook, Ill., medical and financial troubles are becoming catastrophic. She filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 1992 and says she might have to again.
Talaga, a lab technician at a hospital, says she spends $1,225 a month on her share of prescription drugs for her family. She’s diabetic. Her husband, a security officer at a hospital, has high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Both her sons are asthmatic, and one was just diagnosed with major depression. One son’s asthma medication isn’t covered by her insurance: It costs $225 for a 28-dose pack, and he usually uses two packs a month.
She says her husband’s $40,000 salary covers the mortgage and home expenses. Her $25,000 goes for food and medical costs.
“I can’t not take my insulin. My husband can’t go without his high blood pressure medicine,” she says. “My son definitely cannot go without any of his medicine.”
She recently learned her health plan limits mental-health counseling to 20 visits a year. Her son will soon exhaust those benefits.
“How can you cure someone in 20 days if they have mental health issues as severe as my son’s?”
She doesn’t have a solution.
“I wish my employer would back me up and look at people like us,” she says. “I know they still pay a lot for employees, but in the long run, they aren’t looking at the whole picture.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-04-28-medical-bills-usat_x.htm#
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For most women the day they find out they are expecting a baby is etched long in the memory.
For Plymouth woman Sarah Peck it is no different, but she will also remember 28 July 2004 for another reason.
On the same day it was confirmed she was carrying her longed-for third child she was also told she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML).
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Imatinib mesylate is a novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor used for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) leukemia and other malignancies. In previous studies, we found significant telomere shortening in Ph+ cells from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Interestingly, imatinib treatment was found to lead to a normalization of previously shortened telomere length in CML patients. Based on recent reports demonstrating that c-ABL phosphorylates hTERT and thereby inhibits hTERT activity, a direct effect of imatinib on hTERT activity leading to telomere elongation in BCR-ABL-positive cells has been proposed by others. Such an effect could be of potential importance for telomere maintenance in Ph+ cells by facilitating clonal selection and progression of the disease to blast crisis.
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This artist rendering provided by the journal Science shows the ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to be extinct, that has reportedly been sighted in eastern Arkansas, a Cornell University researcher says in a paper released Thursday, April 28, 2005. John W. Fitzpatrick of Cornell University said there have been several independent sightings of a bird that appears to be an ivory-billed woodpecker. The ivory-billed woodpecker, a symbol of the disappearing U.S. wilderness feared extinct for 60 years, has been seen in a remote part of Arkansas, ornithologists said on Thursday. Several experts have spotted and heard at least one and possibly more ivory-billed woodpeckers deep in an ancient cypress swamp in eastern Arkansas. One was videotaped last year.
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Anghel G, De Rosa L, Ruscio C, Petti N, Riccardi M, Severino A, Majolino I
Tumori. 2005 Jan-Feb ; 91(1): 67-70
Idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) is a rare, chronic hematological disease mainly characterized by unexplained prolonged eosinophilia, with frequent evidence of secondary organ damage. Treatment with steroids, chemotherapy, interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha), or imatinib-mesylate may improve the prognosis. Here we describe the case of a young male patient with a six-year history of HES and severe heart involvement who, after unsuccessful treatment attempts with steroids, hydroxyurea and IFN-alpha, had a prompt, clinical and hematological complete remission following administration of imatinib. As his cardiac function also markedly improved, he was considered for heart transplant. However, seven years after the onset of the disease and four months after the termination of imatinib treatment the patient died of a cerebral hemorrhage that occurred during an episode of acute respiratory sepsis. Imatinib has been previously reported to be effective in some hematological conditions with no evidence of the BCR/ABL transcript. The mechanisms that are probably involved in the response to imatinib in HES are also discussed.
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Li B, Zhang GS, Dai CW, Pei MF
Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2005 Feb 23; 85(7): 448-52
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether JAK/STAT pathway is involved in proliferation of hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) cells, and reveal the pathogenesis of HES; observe the dynamic change of the clinical phenotype and hematological response, the expression of janaus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) protein or FIP1L1-PDGFRA mRNA in one HES patient treated with low-dose imatinib. METHODS: The granulocytes of peripheral blood of 4 HES patients, including 3 FIP1L1-PDGFRA positive cases and 1 negative case, were collected. The expression of JAK2, STAT3, and phosphorylated STAT (P-STAT5) proteins were detected by western blotting. One FIP1L1-PDGFRA fusion gene positive patient was administered with low-dose imatinib. Retrospective reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of FIP1L1-PDGFRA was performed and the expressions of JAK2, STAT3 and P-STAT5 were detected by western blotting before treatment and 10, 30, and 60 days after the beginning of treatment. RESULTS: Upregulation of JAK2, STAT3, and P-STAT5 proteins was shown in 3 FIP1L1-PDGFRA fusion gene positive HES patients, while all of these proteins were not expressed in one case of FIP1L1-PDGFRA negative HES. Continuous hematological remission was observed in one FIP1L1-PDGFRA fusion gene positive HES patient after low-dose imatinib treatment. The amount of FIP1L1-PDGFRA transcripts in peripheral blood granulocytes was significantly decreased in 30 days after therapy and turned negative 60 days after therapy. JAK2, STAT3, STAT5, and P-STAT5 expressions were all down-regulated time-dependently and were all negative 60 days after. CONCLUSION: There is excessive activation of JAK/STAT signal pathway in HES patient, which may contribute to the malignant proliferation of eosinophils. Low-dose imatinib, that induces complete hematological and molecular genetic remission, exerts significant effects on FIP1L1-PDGFRA positive HES.
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Kaur S, Parmar S, Smith J, Katsoulidis E, Li Y, Sassano A, Majchrzak B, Uddin S, Tallman MS, Fish EN, Platanias LC
Exp Hematol. 2005 May ; 33(5): 550-7
OBJECTIVE: The mechanisms by which interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) induces antileukemic responses in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cells are not known. We examined whether a member of the protein kinase C (PKC) family of proteins, PKC-delta, is activated during treatment of BCR-ABL cells with IFN-alpha and participates in the induction of interferon responses. METHODS: Immunoblots and immune complex kinase assays were performed to study the phosphorylation and activation of PKC-delta in response to IFN-alpha in CML-derived cell lines. The effects of pharmacological inhibition of PKC-delta on the suppressive effects of IFN-alpha on leukemic CFU-GM progenitors from CML patients were assessed by clonogenic assays in methylcellulose. RESULTS: IFN-alpha treatment of the sensitive CML-derived KT-1 cell line resulted in phosphorylation of PKC-delta and activation of its kinase domain. Such phosphorylation/activation of PKC-delta was required for phosphorylation of Stat1 on serine 727, as inhibition of PKC-delta activity blocked the IFN-alpha-dependent serine phosphorylation of Stat1 and IFN-alpha-inducible gene transcription. IFN-alpha treatment strongly inhibited leukemic CFU-GM progenitor colony fromation from bone marrow or peripheral blood of patients with CML, and such inhibition was reversed by concomitant treatment of the cells with the PKC-delta pharmacologic inhibitor rottlerin. CONCLUSION: Taken altogether, our data demonstrate that PKC-delta plays a critical role in Type I IFN signaling in BCR-ABL expressing cells, acting as a serine kinase for Stat1, to regulate transcriptional activation of interferon-regulated genes and induction of antileukemic responses.
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Wang S, Chai YB, Liu F, Zhang XY, Jia W, Xie X, Yu WQ, Shang ZC, Jin BQ, Sun BZ
Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2005 Jan 19; 85(3): 198-202
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of specific small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting against bcr-abl chimeric gene on the biological traits of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cells. METHODS: CML cells of the line K561 transcribing a type of b3: a2 mRNA of bcr-abl chimeric gene were cultured. A 21nt siRNA targeting against the chimeric location of the b3: a2 mRNA of bcr-abl chimeric gene was designed, synthesized, and transfected into the K562 cells as RNA interference group. Another K562 cells were transfected with fluorescein enzyme gene specific siRNA as indifferent controls, or with lipid alone as blank vector controls. Some K562 cells without treatment were used as normal controls. 48 hours after the transfection Western blotting was used to detect the expression of P210bcr-abl fusion protein. (3)H-TdR incorporation was used to detect the proliferation activity of K562. Annexin V-fluorescencein isothiocyanate (FITC)/phosphatidylinositol (PI) staining was used to detect the apoptosis of K2562 cells. Flow cytometry was used to observe the cell cycle of K562 cells. Benzidine staining was used to detect the differentiation of K562 cells towards erythrocytic series. Western blotting was used further to detect the expression of apoptosis-related protein Bcl-xL/Bax. RESULTS: (1) In contrast with the control groups, the expression level of bcr-abl chimeric gene was much lower in the RNAi group. (2) (3)H-TdR incorporation test showed time-dependent inhibition of proliferation of K562 cells, reflected in decrease of counts per minute (CPM) value in RNAi group 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 96 h after siRNA transfection by 33.06%, 52.25%, 57.64%, and 70.87% respectively (F = 17.7, P
[Effect of specific siRNA targeting against bcr-abl chimeric gene on chronic myelogenous leukemia cells.]
Posted by rob on April 28, 2005 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment
An Indian tourist waterskis on Dal Lake in Srinagar.
Posted by rob on April 27, 2005 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment
A new view of the Eagle Nebula, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken.
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Leuk Lymphoma. 2005 Apr; 46(4): 629-30
Johnson N, Fetni R, Caplan S
No abstract.
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Beyazit Y, Aksu S, Kekilli M, Haznedaroglu IC, Kilickap S, Goker H
Am J Hematol. 2005 Apr 22; 79(1): 79-80
No Abstract.
Unusual extramedullary relapses under imatinib mesylate treatment in chronic myeloid leukemia.
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Rajda J, Phatak PD
Am J Hematol. 2005 Apr 22; 79(1): 80-81
No Abstract.
Reversible drug-induced interstitial pneumonitis following imatinib mesylate therapy.
Posted by rob on April 26, 2005 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment
Young Israelis watch the sunset during the Boombamela festival at the Nitzanim beach in southern Israel.
Posted by rob on April 25, 2005 under Uncategorized | Read the First Comment
A Don Sphynx cat, a Russian breed of hairless cat, meows during a show in the southern Russian city of Stavropol.
Posted by rob on April 24, 2005 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment
Mariza performs songs from her new album at Olga Cadaval Cultural Center in Sintra, a mountan village just outside of Lisbon. Portugal’s modern fado diva Mariza says she feels she has finally emerged from the shadows of Amalia, the queen of the nation’s melancholy music style who died in 1999 at the age of 79.
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Rodríguez-Flores J, Berzas Nevado JJ, Contento Salcedo AM, Cabello Díaz MP
J Chromatogr A. 2005 Mar 11; 1068(1): 175-82
The viability of nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) was investigated for determination of gleevec and its main metabolite in human urine using a fused-silica capillary. Baseline separation of the studied solutes was obtained using a nonaqueous solution composed of 12 mM ammonium acetate and 87.6 mM acetic acid in methanol-acetonitrile (ACN) (80:20, v:v) providing analysis time shorter than 3 min. Different aspects including stability of the solutions, linearity, accuracy and precision were studied in order to validate the method in the urine matrix. Detection limits of 24 microg L(-1) for gleevec and its metabolite were obtained. A robustness test of the method was carried out using the Plackett-Burman fractional factorial model with a matrix of 15 experiments. The developed method is simple, rapid and sensitive and has been used to determine gleveec and its metabolite at clinically relevant levels in human urine. Before NACE determination, a solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedure with a C18 cartridge was necessary. Real determination of these analytes in two patient urines were done.
Posted by rob on April 23, 2005 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment
By MIKE KALIL
Reformer Staff
CHESTERFIELD, N.H. — Mark Lanoue didn’t know what to expect.
He didn’t know whether his young daughter would find a bone marrow donor so she could live.
He started Hristianna’s Gift, an organization seeking to find a donor for the girl and others, in hopes of finding a match locally.
He knew the chances were slim — about one in 40,000.
It turns out there is a donor out there — overseas, and he isn’t even sure what country the person is from. His family may never meet the donor, and if they do, it’ll be at least a year from now.
Lanoue got the news in a voice mail message on his cell phone in late March while he was at Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Florida.
His daughter, 3-year-old Hristianna, was with him as part of the Make a Wish program. The girl’s mother, Litsa Lanoue, stayed at home with their 1-year-old daughter who was sick and couldn’t make the trip.
“I expected that phone call the same day the lottery called to see what account to wire the $100 million into,” Lanoue said Friday. “That’s how much I expected that phone call, to be honest with you.”
Hristianna, who lives in Spofford, was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia on Nov. 17, 2004, two days after her third birthday. During a routine checkup, a doctor became suspicious of the girl’s health after noticing her swollen spleen.
The illness rarely strikes children: About 5,000 people are diagnosed with it each year and 98 percent of them are adults. The disease triggers an overproduction of white blood cells, eventually leading to death if left untreated.
Hristianna is set to start the transplant procedure June 17 in Boston. She’ll go through chemotherapy and full body radiation before getting a transplant. She must stay in the hospital for two months after getting a transplant and then spend six months at home to prevent her from getting sick while she’s in a weakened state.
The leukemia has three stages — chronic, accelerated and acute — and Hristianna is in the first phase, her father said. That increases her chance of surviving the procedure.
The girl shows no signs of the illness yet and has had zero side effects so far from chemotherapy, her father said. She is kept away from big crowds to prevent her from getting ill.
“She appears to be a very normal kid around the yard,” said Mark Lanoue, who runs Mark’s Motors in Brattleboro.
The news followed an ambitious drive locally to find Hristianna a donor. Roughly 1,500 people attended a drive in Keene, in mid-March — despite a heavy snowstorm — to see if they were a match. The girl’s face had been plastered all over the area on posters.
“I knew I had a very, very slim chance,” Mark Lanoue said. “But I, as a father, could not sit back and watch my kid die.”
Lanoue is completing his commitments to other drives already scheduled. There’s one next Saturday at Brattleboro Union High School from 1 to 6 p.m., and he hopes there is a high turnout. He said Hristianna’s illness may have happened for a reason; maybe this is his calling.
And in 2006, he hopes to help hold another drive in Manchester on behalf of the national program in celebration of his daughter’s survival. He wants between 3,000 and 4,000 people to attend that one.
He also wants to pay back the Make a Wish Foundation for Hristianna’s trip, and then some. He said his car dealership will donate $100 to the foundation each time the Boston Red Sox’David Ortiz hits a home run during the baseball season.
“They just take care of these kids like you wouldn’t believe,” he said of the foundation.
Dawn Robinson of Brattleboro takes care of Hristianna’s 4-year-old cousin, Melina Nelson, at her day care. After hearing about Hristianna, she wanted to do something, anything, to help.
“I’m excited, and sad at the same time this has happened,” she said, “but to see the community come forward like this, it’s wonderful.”
For next Saturday’s drive, participants must register first by calling (866) 717-7225 or by e-mailing hristiannasgift@hotmail.com .
The jamboree is being held May 15 from 1-7 p.m. at the Veterans of Foreign Wars building on Black Mountain Road in Brattleboro. One of the prizes at a raffle to be held includes a 1999 Chevy Astro van with a $20,000 sound system.
Understand the coverage offered by the policy and its limitations. Insurance policies vary in coverage limits.