THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605060185
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
The voice that bubbled from the phone's earpiece might have belonged to the beloved boy the father buried, but it wasn't.
The staccato bursts of laughter, the words that tripped over themselves with youthful zest, might have been those of the son whom death snatched from the father's arms, but they weren't.
The recent long-distance encounter between Andy Anderson, who lost his son Jason to leukemia more than a decade ago, and David Scanlan, a 10-year survivor of childhood cancer, connected both the callers and the hope and despair that attend young victims of the disease.
Anderson, a Virginia Beach auctioneer, is poised to throw another punch at the disease, and 20-year-old Scanlan, a pre-med student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, is determined to return to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to do battle with childhood cancer - this time for the sake of others.
On Saturday, Anderson will auction off cars donated by members of the Tidewater Independent Automobile Dealers Association. All proceeds from the second annual benefit will go to St. Jude, the Memphis, Tenn.-hospital founded by actor Danny Thomas. Last year, the event netted nearly $32,000 for research and treatment.
It was St. Jude personnel who put Anderson in touch with Scanlan when he began searching for a symbol of hope to spearhead his ongoing effort to repay the hospital that gave him four added years with his son.
Anderson fought back tears throughout the 10-minute conversation, but afterward gave in to the gut-wrenching sadness touched off, he said, when Scanlan recalled the question he'd put to his parents.
``I remember the day like it was yesterday,'' Scanlan said. ``It was sunny. My parents came into the room single file and told me. . . . I asked them, `Does that mean I'm going to die?' ''
``I remember the day Jason asked me that,'' Anderson said after he'd hung up the phone. He paused to wipe tears from his cheeks.
``If he was going to die. I had to look off. . . . You can't tell them. It's tough to turn your head when they're looking right dead at you for expression.''
Scanlan's parents told him that he'd be going the next day to St. Jude, ``a great hospital in Tennessee.'' It was there that the Wichita, Kan., youth received chemotherapy for non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a particularly aggressive malignancy. It was there, six months later, that he was pronounced free of the cancerous cells.
Scanlan was diagnosed just three months after Jason Anderson died. Jason learned he had leukemia at age 7, underwent four years of chemotherapy, radiation and bone marrow transplants, but died at age 11 after the disease returned.
``I didn't think I would live,'' Scanlan said. ``The name (cancer) is almost as frightening as having it. There were times I asked my mom if it was really worth it, why God made me go through this. Then we'd both cry. . . But St. Jude gave me back my life. It wouldn't have happened anyplace else.''
Anderson hopes that Jason's Auction will snowball to include auto dealers nationwide.
Meanwhile, Scanlan has his sights set on the Tennessee hospital.
``If everything else in my life failed, and I still got to be a doctor at St. Jude, it would be all right,'' Scanlan said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
David Scanlan, left, a 10-year survivor of childhood cancer, and
Andy Anderson, who lost his son Jason to leukemia more than a decade
ago.
David Scanlan, left, is a 10-year survivor of childhood cancer.
Jason Anderson, right, died of leukemia more than a decade ago at
age 11.
Graphic
DETAILS
Jason's Auction will begin at 10 a.m. at 961 S. Military Highway
between Indian River and Providence roads. Bidding will continue
until all vehicles are sold. Vehicles may be inspected beginning at
8 a.m. Donations of other vehicles will be accepted. For more
information, call 496-3496.
by CNB