Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9510030003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The truth is Turner's medical bills are more like $150,000. But since he has no medical insurance, it probably seems like $6 trillion.
So Turner is grateful for tonight's fund-raising concert by Radar Rose. It's sponsored by the band, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Roanoke, the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op, and the AIDS Council of Western Virginia.
The benefit will be at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Grandin Road. Showtime is 8:30 p.m. and the suggested donation is $5.
Turner, 32, also feels a certain amount of trepidation about all the attention.
``I just kind of feel weird being a worthy cause,'' he said.
He likes the good-humored poster advertising the benefit, though. Turner has remained good-humored through most of his ordeal. In fact, the greeting on his home answering machine says: ``I can't come to the phone right now. I've been hit by a truck.''
The poster was crafted by Jane Gabrielle, who fronts Radar Rose and helped organize the benefit. Her poster generally chronicles the saga of Turner's accident. It concludes: ``So, we're throwing a benefit for him to raise money for his bills and to raise his spirits and to raise the roof and, of course, to raise awareness for the plight of the uninsured for politicians who might need an issue to win an election (and then carelessly cast aside later).''
Turner was riding his motorcycle home after class at Virginia Western Community College on July 26 when a man with no automobile insurance and a suspended driver's license hit him with a pickup truck and then fled.
The truck driver was later arrested on felony hit-and-run charges.
Turner suffered a ruptured diaphragm, a collapsed lung, broken ribs, a broken collar bone and a broken left arm. The accident also caused him to lose a kidney.
At the time, Turner didn't have health insurance. He was one month away from becoming eligible for benefits from his employer, the Natural Foods Co-op, where he had worked part time for five months.
One of his co-workers at the co-op is Lisa Balcom, whose husband, Mike, is the drummer for Radar Rose. That's how the band got involved.
He was bitter about his plight at first, but that has abated. ``All the support I've gotten has really turned my outlook around,'' he said.
Turner is a 1981 graduate of William Byrd High School. He is studying to become a social worker and wants to work with AIDS patients. His older brother died of AIDS last year.
Now, Turner is looking forward to getting back to school and work and to attending tonight's benefit. Well, he's sort of looking forward to tonight's benefit.
``I feel weird,'' he repeated.
``The problem is I don't know how to thank people enough.''
by CNB