ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN ADAMS STAFF WRITER On Sunday morning at 9 - when most people
were shuffling toward their coffee - 21 dedicated runners laced up their shoes
for a routine run on the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the rain.
With thunder booming overhead, they ran as if lives depended on it -
because they do.
On July 14, 40 runners from the area - of all ages and levels of experience - will run the San Francisco Marathon on behalf of the Leukemia Society of America. Each runner is raising $2,500 in donations for the cause.
As part of the Leukemia Society's Team in Training, participants run in honor or in memory of local leukemia patients. They keep photographs of their patients, mostly children, at home, where they can see them. Many of the runners wear hospital bracelets bearing their patients' names.
``I think it's really cool that people are doing this,'' says 13-year-old David Boitnott. Diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) when he was 5, David has been in remission for five years.
On Sunday, he trotted alongside Charlie Crosson, who is running the marathon in his honor.
Leukemia is the leading fatal disease for children in this country. Fortunately, great strides have been made in recent years toward treatment and cure.
Thirty-five years ago, leukemia was a universally fatal disease. Today, close to two-thirds of the children who have it are cured, says Dr. Ron Neuberg, a pediatric oncologist with the Medical Center for Children at Community Hospital of the Roanoke Valley.
In exchange for raising money for the Leukemia Society, runners receive individualized training from their coaches as well as transportation to the marathon, lodging and meals.
They also receive lots of encouragement along the way.
Co-coaches Dan Wright and David Oliver have been working with the team since January, offering training schedules, information on health and nutrition, tips on everything from stretching to injury prevention - and unwavering assurance.
At First Union, where many of the runners work, non-running colleagues have formed a support group to keep the others inspired.
``This group, they're all amazing," says Oliver, who works for American Electric Power. "They're going to run a marathon in San Francisco - which is not flat.''
Most of the team members have never run a marathon before, adds Wright. "And some of them have not run at all. Ever.''
Like Connie Kennedy. At the turn of the new year, the 33-year-old First Union customer service rep promised herself she would lose a few pounds and get in serious shape. Perhaps by walking, she thought.
During the first week of January she read a company memo from Wright (assistant vice president in the mortgage division) that described the program. She asked him about it. And he, of course, urged her to join.
Wright assured her that, even though she'd never done it before, she would learn - step by step - how to run a marathon.
When the coaches told her about the leukemia patients she'd be running for, she signed up on the spot.
Since then, she's been running six days a week faithfully. ``During the snowstorms I had snow plastered to one side of my face,'' she says.
It was difficult, especially at the beginning when she couldn't run a mile. ``But I think about how hard it must be to get up every day, for the child and for the parents. Whatever pain or misery I go through with running, it's nothing compared to what they're going through.'' She can now run 13 miles at a stretch.
Kennedy is running for Kara Schweitzer, daughter of Paul and Donna Schweitzer of Salem. She is also running for Caitie Adkins of Richmond, whose grandmother, Pat Breedlove, works at First Union in Roanoke. Both girls are 3 years old.
``I know it's such a helpless feeling,'' Kennedy says, remembering her own mother's battle with breast cancer. She describes a letter sent to her by Kara's father, in which he thanked her for her involvement. He also mentioned that two of the children in the program had already died.
``If I were in their situation I'd want as many people as possible out there raising money and awareness,'' Kennedy says. ``If this can get us closer to a cure, then running 26 miles is nothing.''
Kara, who also has ALL, is undergoing chemotherapy through next February. For now, she's doing well and is going to preschool. Her hair's growing back, and she is happy that she can pull it into a short ponytail, her father says. ``We see all the little miracles that God works, rather than the big ones.''
In spite of everything, Paul Schweitzer says, ``We feel blessed. It's made us all stronger.``
It's the memory of a child that gives Marie Poff strength.
At the beginning of the year, she, like Kennedy, promised herself she would lose weight and get in shape. She started walking.
Poff, who works in customer service at First Union, received the same memo from Wright and was embraced by his enthusiasm. She found her conviction in the memory of Anna Zook, the daughter of friends Chuck and Claudia Zook. Anna died of leukemia in 1994 at the age of 4.
To raise money, Poff has stood outside Kroger and Kmart with a bucket, explaining to shoppers what she was trying to do. ``I never thought I would do something like that,'' she says. But people contributed generously. Many of them stopped to tell her about someone they'd lost to leukemia.
She says she was most touched by the donations of the many teen-agers.
At 59, Crosson, a seasoned runner, had sworn off marathons forever.
Until he heard about this one.
``My motivation is helping somebody who has a life-threatening disease,'' says Crosson, director of planned giving at Hollins College.
He was touched by the story of Michelle Carew, daughter of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew, who died last Wednesday at 18.
So he donned a hospital bracelet and began raising money on behalf of David Boitnott.
``The emotional side of it is very strong,'' he says.
Crosson will proudly tell you that David, a seventh grader, is a good student and a talented artist. And he has a red belt in tae kwon do.
Phyllis Boitnott, David's mom, says a blood test for a school medical examination revealed her son's illness. He was 5. ``That finger stick saved his life,'' his mother says. Treatment began immediately and David is now a healthy student at Northside Middle School.
``It's a vicious disease, unrelenting, and we saw a lot of kids die," Phyllis Boitnott says. "But God has been good to us.
``We've seen a lot of strangers who were very tender and loving and who've given above and beyond of themselves. It reaffirms my faith in mankind.''
Mark and Keely Richardson of Blue Ridge are the parents of 3-year-old Willie, who was diagnosed with leukemia of the bone marrow at 9 months. Thanks to early identification and aggressive treatment, Willie now lives a relatively normal life.
In 1994 he received a bone marrow transplant from his older sister, Lacy. He's been in remission for 2 years now. ``He breezed through it,'' says his father. ``It seems like every month they're coming up with a new treatment.''
Roy Kendrick of Salem is running in Willie's honor.
Neuberg, the pediatric oncologist, serves as the liaison between patients and their families and the runners, and provides pep talks for both groups.
He says that much of the money that's raised by the runners goes directly to patients and their families (to pay for such expenses as traveling to treatment, for example, which is not covered by insurance), and to research.
The marathon project is a good metaphor for what the children go through, he says. "Those kids hit the wall too, just like runners, and feel like they can't go on.''
Team in Training is the society's most successful program across the country. Each regional group prepares for a specific marathon and raises the money to get there.
Last year 6,000 runners raised $9.1 million, up from $1.3 million when the program first started in 1993.
The local group expects to reach its goal by late May. Toward that end, they've held bake sales, car washes, yard sales and raffles. They asked for ``Pennies for Patients'' at elementary schools and students brought in hundreds of dollars of loose change.
``That's neat,'' says Poff. ``It's kids helping kids.''
LENGTH: Long : 152 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. 1. One of the 40 area runners inby CNBtraining for the San Francisco Marathon, Alison Ridley begins the
first of 14 miles she planned to run last weekend on the Blue Ridge
Parkway. 2. Charlie Crosson (left) will run the marathon in honor of
13-year-old David Boitnott, a leukemia patient in remission. color.
3. Coaches are preparing marathon team members to run in famously
hilly San Francisco by training them on the Blue Ridge Parkway.