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Training with a purpose

By Dana Baron for The Post & Mail
February 28, 2005 - Fueled with a determined spirit and a passion for running, Dallas Leatherman, of Columbia City, is on a different kind of mission with his next race. Leatherman is a runner who competes in races and marathons in the area. Using his ability, he plans to run in a Triathlon to raise funds for the Leukemia Society.

While running in other races, he noticed participants wearing purple shirts labeled with the words "Team in Training" on them. Curious, Leatherman went to a meeting to find out what team was training for what. He learned that Team in Training is the leading fundraising group for the Leukemia Society raising funds across the county.

Since beginning in 1992, Team in Training has raised $500,000 for the society. After attending the information meeting, he went to an arena where he was able to choose from several locations he would like to run the Triathlon. He chose to run the Triathlon offered in May in Memphis, TN. Participants of this particular Triathlon have a personal goal to raise $4,000 each. Many of the competitors had leukemia themselves and are currently in remission.

Equipped with a team who has a goal to "Do a little more each year," a personal coach, as well as mentors who helps with fundraising, Leatherman is on his way to reaching his goal.

His motivation is a three-year-old boy named Isaac who was diagnosed in 2001 with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. He found out about little Isaac through the Fort Wayne Team in Training group. Isaac is the "Honor Person" for the group. Leatherman is meeting Isaac for the first time today.

"Isaac will be my driving force in my endeavors," Leatherman said.

In running this race, he sincerely hopes to raise the funds for Isaac, as well as pay tribute to his own mother, who passed away from cancer.

"If I'm healthy now and I can help someone who isn't, that's what I want to do," he said.

When asked if this experience has changed him, he said, "I don't think it's changed me, it's just the way I am."

Simply put, Leatherman believes that he's always been healthy enough to do things, and he wants to use that to help the unfortunate. He also said the experience has opened his eyes to just how much the people he is competing with care about helping find a cure for cancer.

In an effort to inform people of his plans, he created a campaign letter in which he states, "To achieve something important, you need to set goals and have the conviction to see it through to the end." He also included information about how to help him reach his goal. He is currently at $700.00 and still needs to raise $3,300 more.

If interested in making a donation, call him at (260) 609-3635 or mail the donation, in the form of a check, to 232 Raleigh Ct. Columbia City. Seventy-five percent of monies donated will be applied directly to patient care and research while the remaining 25 percent go toward administration and the cost of being the triathlon.

While Dallas said that he can't personally meet everyone who helps, he wants to thank those who have and says, "No matter what happens, it wasn't from lack of trying."

Teen takes a terrible turn

GIRL WITH RARE BLOOD TYPE MAY NEED MARROW TRANSPLANT

By Jessica Portner

Mercury News - Feb. 19, 2005 - A few weeks ago, Brittany Hill-Marelich of Redwood City was tantalizing her three cats -- Misty, Shadow and Daisy -- with catnip and laughing with her friends at San Carlos High School.

Friday, the 14-year-old was lying in bed getting blood transfusions and loaded with antibiotics at Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, having been diagnosed with leukemia.

Marelich's family said the girl's medical condition is precarious -- and not only because acute myelogenous leukemia, caused by a defect in immature bone marrow cells, can kill more than half the people who contract it. The Stanford Blood Center is also running out of her blood type -- B-negative, found in 1.5 percent of the population.

``This is so hard. I was devastated,'' said Brittany's mom, Christine Hill-Marelich, a single mother who works as a nanny. ``I said, `Not my baby.' ''

Hill-Marelich said her daughter, who at 6 feet tall towers over her freshman classmates, loves to snap photographs and create Web designs. She has a near straight-A average.

But she said her girl never was the picture of robust health. Brittany has suffered from a bladder condition as well as asthma. When Brittany's skin became jaundiced recently and the girl noticed several lumps under her arms, her mother knew something more serious was wrong.

Doctors at the hospital are treating the teen with chemotherapy and transfusions of B-negative blood. To survive the cancer, the teenager will probably have to have a bone marrow transplant, doctors say. The mother has some new hope, however. She has tracked down Brittany's biological father, whom the girl had never met, who has sent his blood to the hospital to determine if he is a match.

Brittany's classmates are trying to get the word out and encourage friends to donate blood. Mariah Howland, 14, said she wishes that her blood type, which is O-negative, would work. She's hoping to soon be able to eat lunch again at school with her friend.

``She is very quiet and really nice, and when you talk to her she will never say anything mean about anyone,'' said Mariah. ``I am actually real sad cause I didn't think it was fair that it happened to her.''

Blood drive set for sick children

By Stacy Wolford
VALLEY INDEPENDENT
December 15, 2005 - The Pletcher family is hoping for a Christmas miracle. Jody and Larry Pletcher's 2-year-old daughter, Justess, will undergo her second bone marrow transplant next week. And once again, her big sister, Journie, 7, will be the bone marrow donor.

Justess was diagnosed in May with a rare form of leukemia called Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS), a disorder where the bone marrow produces too few red blood cells, white blood cells and often platelets.

Justess underwent her first bone marrow transplant in June, but she rejected her sister's marrow.

Over the past several months, her condition has turned critical and she has been hospitalized while undergoing chemotherapy.

A blood drive for Justess and another local boy suffering from cancer, Cole Dwyer, 4, of Belle Vernon, will be held from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the St. Sebastian Church social hall, North Belle Vernon, hosted by the Central Blood bank.

Jody Pletcher, who is 6 1/2 months pregnant with the couple's third child, explained the blood bank is in dire need of donors, as Justess had to wait nearly two hours recently for a platelets transfusion.

Pletcher said Justess' bone marrow surgery is planned for either Monday or Tuesday.

In the meantime, the family is rallying together and planning to spend the holidays in the hospital.

"We want to thank everyone for their support, especially those at St. Sebastian Church," Pletcher said.

"They've been just wonderful."

Donations to help the family's growing medical expenses can be sent to the Justess Pletcher Fund, care of National City Bank, 433 Broad Ave., Belle Vernon, Pa. 15012.

Stacy Wolford can be reached at [email protected] or (724) 684-2640.

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