Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 19, 1995                   TAG: 9501230017
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

6-YEAR-OLD CANCER PATIENT IS A FIGHTER

``She's a fighter,'' says her grandmother, Carol Howell. ``She doesn't really know how sick she is.''

Even if you told Tabatha she has a stage four neuroblastoma, it wouldn't mean much to her. She doesn't realize that an unwanted growth has invaded her bone marrow and lymph nodes.

But she remembers the three rounds of chemotherapy treatments she has endured, the more than 50 units of blood she has received, and the nine hours of surgery she had in December to remove a tumor that started in her abdomen and wrapped around her spine.

Becky Smith, a friend and co-worker of Tabatha's mother, Debbie Bailey, knows just how sick Tabatha is, and she's mobilizing efforts to help out.

Smith has set up donation buckets at stores, gas stations, repair shops and hotels around the valley, and donations may be made to the Tabatha Bailey Fund at Southwest Virginia Savings Bank's Vinton branch.

Smith also has organized two fund-raisers to help the Baileys get through their tough time. There's an all-day musical jam session Sunday at the Coffee Pot, featuring Radar Rose, the Mavericks and the Kings. And there's a Valentine's dance at the Sheraton Inn Airport on Feb. 17.

Tabatha is scheduled to receive a bone marrow transplant the second week of February at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

The child, who has a rare blood type, also needs blood to get through the surgery and the treatments that will follow.

Her blood type is A 2B negative, but these other blood types will also work: AB negative, B negative, AB positive, B positive and O negative. Donations can be made at the American Red Cross, 352 Church Ave. S.W.

Although Tabatha's medical expenses are pretty well-covered by insurance, her mother will have to take off two months from her job as a radiological technologist to care for Tabatha. She has already used up her allotted vacation time, Howell says.

Admission to the jam session at the Coffee Pot, 2902 Brambleton Ave. S.W., is $5. Entertainment is from 1-9 p.m., and will range from stand-up comedy to bluegrass, country, folk and rock music. For more information, call the Coffee Pot, 774-8526.

Memo: ***CORRECTION***