Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Locals helping fight leukemia

A group of Fayette County residents is working on several activities to raise awareness about leukemia and honor a special young patient fighting the disease.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training Southside has raised more than $66,000 in recent months by fundraising and participating in various running events.

Members of this group live all over the south side of Atlanta, from Clayton County to Columbus, but they meet every other Saturday in Peachtree City to train.

Representatives of this team participated in marathons and half-marathons in Chicago, Honolulu, Bermuda and Walt Disney World over the past few months. Upcoming races will be in such sites as Nashville, San Diego, Alaska and Montana.

Team In Training is the largest endurance-training program in the world and is also the most successful fundraising campaign of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Competitors train for half-marathon, marathon, century ride, mountain bike or triathlon events in honor of local cancer patients.

They receive training and counseling from certified coaches, advice on nutrition and technique, race strategy, equipment and injury prevention. In exchange for fundraising efforts, each volunteer is provided transportation, hotel and race entry expenses by the LLS for his or her chosen event.

While training, volunteers work toward a fundraising goal already determined by Team In Training. After 25 percent of the funds raised are used for administrative fees, the remaining 75 percent goes directly into research and patient aid. This is the best ratio of all charitable organizations with similar programs, and the LLS has been rated one of the 10 best-run charities by Money magazine.

The organization's goal is to cure leukemia and lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, and myeloma while improving the quality of life for patients and their families. These diseases will kill an estimated 60,400 persons in the United States this year 11 percent of all cancer deaths.

With more than 640,000 Americans currently living with these diseases, authorities expect 2,300 new diagnoses in Georgia this year alone, as well as 1,400 deaths. Leukemia is the number one killer among children under the age of 15.

Due largely to research supported by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the survival has gone from four percent in 1960 to about 80 percent today. There were approximately 575 deaths from childhood leukemia last year.

Team In Training is now recruiting for the summer season. For more information, call Meg Aurand of the LLS at 770-438-6006.

Another way to help fight leukemia is by participating in an upcoming blood drive and bone marrow typing in honor of a local 7-year-old boy who has been battling leukemia for three years.

Alex Sudduth is a second-grader at Huddleston Elementary in Peachtree City, where his mother teaches first grade. He was first diagnosed in late 1997 at the age of four.

After beginning treatment at Egleston Children's Hospital (now Children's Healthcare of Atlanta), he went into remission and received his last chemotherapy treatment last May. He went for monthly maintenance checkups throughout the summer and had his portal catheter, the device used to quickly administer the chemo drugs to his blood stream, removed last October.

He became sick during the recent Christmas holidays and tests showed that the leukemia had returned. Doctors then suggested the possibility of Alex needing a bone marrow transplant. His 10-year-old brother Christopher was tested but was not a match, so now the search has gone nationwide for a bone marrow match for Alex.

At the blood drive, scheduled for March 27 at Huddleston Elementary, not only will volunteers be able to donate blood for the American Red Cross, but they will have the opportunity to become national bone marrow donors. Each volunteer's blood will be tested to see if it is a match for Alex, then placed in the National Marrow Donor Program for other patients across the country battling leukemia and in need of transplants.

Since 1968 bone marrow transplants have been used in the treatment of leukemia, aplastic anemia and about 60 other related diseases. A person's bone marrow has unique characteristics which are genetically inherited, so when a matching relative is not found, a volunteer donor on the registry is the best chance for a match.

The National Marrow Donor Program maintains a registry of unrelated volunteer donors who have agreed to give marrow if ever matched with a patient in need of a transplant.

How does all of this work? You provide a sample and consent to having your typing listed anonymously on the National Marrow Donor Program registry. Once on the registry, your marrow type is matched against patients in need of donors. You will receive a call if your are discovered to be a matched donor.

Following additional tests to determine if your are a complete match for the patient, you decide whether to donate. Information session will help you make the final decision whether to donate.

On the day of marrow donation, the donor enters the hospital and usually remains for only a few hours following the procedure. Anesthesia ensures a painless procedure that takes about an hour to complete. All donated marrow is replaced naturally within a few weeks.

If you are interested in donating blood or becoming a bone marrow donor in this blood drive honoring Alex Sudduth, please contact Erin Yocom at 770-252-9500 or Lisa Aultman at 678-469-8262.