Charlotte Observer | 01/22/2006 | Leukemia’s pedaling foe

Posted by rob on January 22, 2006 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

GREG LACOUR

glacour@charlotteobserver.com

Judith Teele doesn’t want your sympathy.

She doesn’t want to see what she calls “this hang-dog look” that crosses people’s faces when they learn that her son, Hank, her first child, died of acute lymphoblasticleukemia at age 2 in 1972.

But she’s willing to tell people the story. At 61, the Morganton resident has learned that revealing personal matters — something a lady of her generation and upbringing just doesn’t do — can lead to something good.

So here it is: Her son’s death led her to raise money for leukemia research. Her love of cycling has helped keep her healthy. In March, Teele will begin a two-month, 3,098-mile bicycle trek across the country for a Boston cancer institute with a goal of curing leukemia.

She’s seeking donations, all of which she plans to send to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. So she can’t afford to be shy about what she’s doing and why.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to talk about my son’s death but that the world I grew up in told me that you just don’t talk about your problems in public, you just don’t go parading your problems in the public arena. I still feel a little squeamish about doing it,” Teele said.

“People just get this hang-dog look on their faces. It is tragic, but it’s not altogether tragic. Life goes on.”

Hank appeared to be a healthy boy after his birth in 1969. But one day, near Labor Day 1971, he fell and developed a bruise that wouldn’t go away. Teele was puzzled, then alarmed: The fall hadn’t been that bad, but the bruise was. The doctors diagnosed leukemia. The disease worked quickly. Hank died seven months later, on March 29, 1972.

Teele overcame her grief and had two more children soon after with her husband, Morganton attorney Dockery Teele Jr. — Walker, now 33, who lives in Durham, and a daughter, Nan, 32, who lives in Boston. Teele developed her own career as a free-lance public relations consultant and, when she could, raised money locally for leukemia research organizations.

She stayed active, too, running until her early 40s, when, she said, “everything hurt.” So she switched to cycling. Eventually, she lit upon the idea of combining her two interests.

The idea came in 2001, when she and five other women undertook a long bike race to benefit AIDS research. She loved it so much, she began looking for an organization she could raise money for through cycling. Then, last year, she found it through a longtime friend.

Teele had known Mary Helen Jones for decades, since the two women lived in Morganton, where their children attended school together. In 1993, Jones was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia, a rare cancer of the bone marrow.

Her situation was dire until she sought treatment at Dana-Farber, which was pioneering the use of an experimental drug called Gleevec. Her condition improved. Jones, who now lives in Charlotte, travels to Boston twice a year for checkups and more medicine, and she knew her friend was looking for a more personal connection to her fundraising idea.

This was it.

“I think very few women her age could do what she’s doing,” Jones said. “I think it’s a fabulous undertaking. It’s the kind of thing people wish or hope they could do but never do it. Judy is the kind of person who’ll do it.”

It won’t be easy. The trip, from San Diego to St. Augustine, Fla., will take 58 days, including only eight days for rest. It’s being organized by WomanTours, a cycling organization that encourages participants in their tours to ride for a cause. Teele will take the trip with 24 other women, each with her own organization to support.

“I’m somewhat amazed that she has the energy to put into it,” Dockery Teele Jr. said. “I’m impressed that she has what it takes to undertake something like this, as well as the reasons she’s doing it.”

If the experience is anything like her last fundraising bike trip, she said, the effort will be worth it.

“All of us who did the ride were inspired and touched,” Teele said. “And it made an adventure-based experience that much more meaningful, because we were doing something not just for ourselves but for others.”

Want to Donate?

To make a tax-deductible donation to support Judith Teele’s ride for leukemia research, you can send money to The EmbraceLife Fund, Grace Episcopal Church, Morganton 28655. The fund will provide a tax receipt.

Charlotte Observer | 01/22/2006 | Leukemia’s pedaling foe