Spofford girl’s transplant set for June 17

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.

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