THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 21, 1995 TAG: 9507210701
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
One week after doctors told Andy and Faith Anderson that the leukemia their son had been fighting for four years had returned with a vengeance, 11-year-old Jason Ryan Anderson was dead.
Though 10 years have passed, time has not taken the edge off the pain the father feels when he thinks or talks about his oldest son's death. Nor has a decade lessened his determination to repay those who gave him four precious extra years with Jason.
The vow he made in 1985 to do something for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has grown into a vision to find a cure for childhood leukemia - to spare other families the suffering that comes when a child's life is snuffed out almost before it has begun.
On Saturday, Anderson will make good on his promise to the Memphis, Tenn., hospital.
Anderson, an auctioneer, will sell to the highest bidders 250 new and used vehicles donated by local automobile dealers, including a new car given by Tom Barton of Beach Ford, co-chairman of the event. All proceeds will go to St. Jude, the facility founded by the late actor Danny Thomas. The sale begins at 10 a.m. at Harbor Park in Norfolk.
Anderson plans to make the auction an annual event and is organizing similar benefits in the Washington area and elsewhere. The feisty father has found a way to use his talents to create a living memorial to his son and offer hope to others.
On a January night in 1985, Andy stood beside his son Jason's bed at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk. Until the boy's relapse just a week earlier, the Andersons were optimistic that the four years of chemotherapy, radiation and bone marrow transplants had rid Jason's body of cancer cells. But the flulike symptoms, the fatigue and the bruising had reappeared, and doctors offered no hope that further treatment would hold the ravaging disease at bay any longer.
That evening, Anderson held his comatose son's hand and felt Jason give the firm squeeze that father and son had agreed earlier would say ``I love you'' if and when other communication was no longer possible.
The next day, a Sunday, Andy Anderson stood at his dying son's bedside and gave him leave to go to heaven to be with his grandfather. He told Jason, too, that Starsky, the boy's dog, ``would be waiting on'' him there. Then Jason's long battle ended.
``This is my baby,'' said Andy, touching a framed portrait of Jason he keeps in his West Great Neck Road office. The boy's blond curls and lively blue eyes belie his fatal disease.
``He was a fighter for life,'' said Andy, tears welling in his own blue eyes and running down his cheeks. ``I want them to find a cure.''
``He's turning his promise into a reality,'' said Don Stevens, a close family friend and spokesman for the auction. ``This is Jason still reaching his potential. I have a feeling this boy is still very much alive.''
St. Jude absorbed all unreimbursed costs involved in Jason's four years of treatment at the Memphis hospital, which included bone marrow transplants from his then year-old brother, Blair.
``St. Jude walked with them all the way,'' said Stevens. ``They can't repay, but it's a down payment on what Danny Thomas wanted - that no child should die in the dawn of life.''
``For four years, they kept him alive,'' Stevens said. ``As long as he was alive, there was hope. If Jason's auction can raise enough money that 10, 15 or 20 other kids can live long enough to go back to their families . . .''
The response of car dealers has been ``great,'' said Anderson. ``I didn't realize all the help I was going to get.''
Barton's co-chair for the event is Jack Adams of the Tidewater Independent Automobile Dealers Association.
All vehicles will be sold. Cash and certified funds will be accepted.
Private car donations are also welcome. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CHARLIE MEADS/Staff
Andy Anderson in his office with a photo of his son, Jason, who died
of leukemia 10 years ago.
Graphic
FOR DETAILS
Call Andy Anderson at
496-3496 or Don Stevens at 496-0800.
by CNB