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Women fight leukemia with poses

By Iowa City Press-Citizen

February 9, 2005 - Thanks to Iowa City resident Patty Meier and some friends, the "Calendar Girls" aren't just British anymore.

Meier and five friends have followed the 2003 movie's lead, baring some skin to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program.

In the movie "Calendar Girls," a Yorkshire woman and her buddies pose naked for a calendar to raise money for a medical-research charity after the husband of one of the women is diagnosed with leukemia.

Team in Training is the world's largest endurance sports training program. The program trains participants for a marathon, triathlon, or century ride while they raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The society is dedicated to curing leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma.

The small desk calendars featuring the women posing in saucy positions have been selling well since they came out at the beginning of January. August is the most daring, with two large melons covering essential body parts. Other props include shoes, a flag, kids blocks and a bin of pasta.

One photo seems to feature basketballs, a soccer ball, and a couple of footballs. But the eye is drawn to the smiling face of Meier, 40, behind them. No trace of clothing can be detected, but Meier admits to wearing shorts and a tube top at the time.

Many of the local women's reasoning is similar. All of them are runners who know someone affected by leukemia or lymphoma. Meier lost her father, Leo J. Meier of Dubuque, to leukemia in August 2003. Most have run marathons and half marathons to raise money for the society.

Also featured in the calendar: Anne Tomanek-Chalkley, Nicole Phillips and Ann Conkin, all of Iowa City; Amanda Freese of Cedar Rapids; and Wendy Mayer of Kalona.

Meier ran the Rock and Roll Marathon in June 2003 in San Diego after training 18 weeks through the Team in Training program.

"I hadn't run for years before that," said Meier, who ran with three sisters, a brother and his girlfriend. They raised $22,000.

Her father was unable to watch them run due to complications with his leukemia treatments at University Hospitals.

Even so, "it felt really good to focus on something positive," Meier said. "It gave him something to focus on besides being sick."

On Jan. 9, she ran a half marathon at Disney World in Florida.

Meier came up with the idea for the calendar after a co-worker did a full-size version through a different photographer. When Meier went to pick up some family photos from H. Horan Studio in Coralville, she asked photographer Howard Horan if he would volunteer to take some similar shots. Horan was happy to use his skills to help the cause.

"That's a women's product for women," Horan said.

Meier said co-workers, friends, and husbands are grabbing them up. About 100 have been sold so far, she said.

"It was a lot of fun coming up with the ideas," said Conkin, campaign coordinator for the Light the Night walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society was founded in 1949. Cure rates for adults with leukemia have increased significantly from 14 percent in the 1960s to 39 percent in the 1990s. For children, cure rates have skyrocketed from 4 percent to 73 percent in the same timeframe.

"I think they're getting close," Meier said. "I think I'll see (a cure) in my lifetime and I'd like to be a part of it."

" Calendars are available, for $10.95 each, from Running Wild Stores in Coralville and Cedar Rapids, Horan Studio in Coralville, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society office at 702 S. Gilbert St.

" The calendar can be ordered online at www.yearbox.com/tnt.

" All proceeds benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society -- routed first through the women who participated in the calendar. The women involved can apply their share of the proceeds retroactively to past races.

Janitor pleads guilty to theft charge

By Associated Press

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) February 9th, 2005 - A former janitor with the Independence School District has pleaded guilty to stealing money from a fund-raiser intended to help a teenager diagnosed with leukemia.
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Robert Ferres, 43, of Independence, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree theft. He was sentenced to five years on probation and ordered to pay $500 in restitution.
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Ferres took a money bag from a vault at Independence Middle School. The money was from a fund-raiser held Jan. 10, 2004 for Kyle Lorenz, who was diagnosed with leukemia.
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The money bag was found when police searched Ferres home.

Experimental Drug Revlimid Stuns Cancer Doctors

Cancer Doctors Stunned That Revlimid Drug for Symptoms Treats Blood Disease

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
The Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. May 16, 2005 No one could have been more surprised than the doctors themselves. They were just hoping to relieve the symptoms of a deadly blood disorder and ended up treating the disease itself. In nearly half of the people who took the experimental drug Revlimid, the cancer became undetectable.

Specialists said Revlimid now looks like a breakthrough and the first effective treatment for many people with myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, which is even more common than leukemia.

"It may be, if not eradicating the disease, putting it into what I would call deep remission," said Dr. David Johnson, a cancer specialist at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center who is familiar with but had no role in the research.

Revlimid "is not yet on the market but almost certainly will be" because of these findings, he said.

MDS refers to a group of disorders caused by the bone marrow not making enough healthy, mature blood cells. About 15,000 to 20,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States, and as many as 50,000 Americans have it now. They usually suffer anemia and fatigue and need blood transfusions about every eight weeks to stay alive.

"It's a serious problem, it tends to occur in older people, and it's fatal for most," said Dr. Herman Kattlove, a blood disorder specialist at the American Cancer Society.

Revlimid is similar to thalidomide, a drug notorious for the birth defects it caused decades ago but that in recent years has proved effective against another blood cancer, multiple myeloma. Researchers don't really know how Revlimid works other than that Revlimid boosts the immune system in a number of ways.

In small studies, Revlimid also showed promise and with far fewer side effects. In a new study, doctors tested it on 115 people with MDS who have the most common chromosome abnormality that causes the disease.

After about six months on the Revlimid drug, 66 percent no longer needed blood transfusions, said the study's leader, Dr. Alan List of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. A year later, three-fourths of them still don't need transfusions.

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