Kathleen Foran, 23, has been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia.
By: Linda Seida
LAMBERTVILLE Kathleen Foran had no inkling that something was seriously wrong.
At the age of 23, she had a good job and a steady boyfriend and the energy to handle both.
An upcoming knee surgery, her second for an injury sustained playing softball, was her most pressing concern. All that changed when her pre-op blood work came back.
Feb. 13, doctors told the Lambertville woman she has chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML. Experts consider this type of leukemia rare, even though there were 6,000 new cases last year, according to the CML Web site, www.cmlhelp.org.
"It was a shock. Once you get that behind you, you focus on what you need to do," said Ms. Foran’s aunt, Bridget Foran.
What needs to be done for Kathleen Foran’s survival, doctors told the family, is a bone marrow transplant. The procedure is neither easy nor cheap. The first hurdle is finding a matching donor.
According to the National Bone Marrow Transplant Link, (http://comnet.org/nbmtlink/), a not-for-profit organization that serves bone marrow transplant patients and their families throughout the United States, the cost of actual transplants is often covered by health insurance these days, although that was not always the case.
Still, other necessary expenses are large and usually not covered by insurance companies. These outstanding expenses include donor searches, which usually go as high as $10,000, and the procedures to procure marrow from donors, which range from $25,000 to $40,000.
Additionally, patients and their families incur the cost of living away from home for extended periods following the transplant procedure.
Added to the pressure is a deadline: doctors say she needs the procedure by February 2004 before the leukemia is likely to progress to an acute stage.
"Once it gets there, there really isn’t too much they can do," said another aunt, Patty Vasey.
Although an identical twin sister, Krista, has been tested, she most likely will not be a good match.
"Her bone marrow would not correct Kathleen’s problem," said Ms. Vasey, who works as the assistant to the business administrator at Delaware Township School.
"Their cell composition would be too much alike," she said doctors explained. "We’re waiting to see if she’s a match."
Test results take six weeks.
Last month, about 300 Lambertville residents turned out to be tested to see if their bone marrow might be the one to help Ms. Foran. They poured into a room at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church, some waiting in line for up to two hours. A total of 267 people were tested, at a cost of $30 each.
Some potential donors were excluded because of pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes or arthritis.
Even though some of the people tested were generous enough to pay for their own tests to help alleviate the money pressures that the Foran family is under, the family still owes about $1,800 for the testing done that day, according to Bridget Foran. Other expenses include a monthly prescription for Gleevec that costs $2,100 for a 30-day supply. Insurance pays only a portion of the cost.
A bake sale will be held April 19 at the Young Men’s Athletic Club in Lambertville with all proceeds going to help Kathleen Foran. Others who wish to make a contribution may send their donations to Friends of Kathleen Foran, care of First Union Bank, 31 Bridge St., Lambertville. Donations in Kathleen Foran’s name also may be sent to the HLA Registry Foundation Inc., 70 Grand Ave., River Edge, N.J., 07661-1900. The HLA Registry is a leading independent bone marrow registry that helps finds compatible donors for people with fatal blood diseases.
Everyone, including Lambertville residents the family has never met and people who only visit the city, have been wonderful to the family, Kathleen Foran’s aunts say.
"Thank you just doesn’t seem like enough," Bridget Foran said of all the support Kathleen has received from the community. "St. John’s in Lambertville let us use their place. They’ve been wonderful."
Others, too, have offered to hold events, although no dates have been set. David Rago of the Rago Auction House, offered to host a fund-raising dance at his studio, and the Inn of the Hawke also offered to hold a fund-raiser. A friend of Bridget Foran’s, who works in the Flemington ShopRite, got the store to donate refreshments for the bone marrow drive at St. John’s.
"It’s really amazing," Bridget Foran said. "I don’t even know the words for it. One guy called and said, ‘I read about your niece.’ He asked his Rotary and other companies he does business with to give donations. It’s a wonderful feeling. We live in a small community, and when people are in need, people do come together."
Among those who have helped raise funds for Kathleen Foran is Zora Andrich, the 30-year-old woman who lived in Lambertville for five years before attaining fame as one of the woman featured in "Joe Millionaire," a reality show produced by the Fox network. When the city hosted Zora Day on March 29, net proceeds went to four local charities, one of which was the Friends of Kathleen Foran. The others charities were the Lambertville-New Hope Ambulance and Rescue Squad, the Mercer County Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and Fighting AIDS Continuously Together (FACT), an organization that supports people living with HIV and AIDS.
"I’d just like to say thank you to her for thinking of Kathleen," Bridget Foran said of Ms. Andrich. "Charity starts at home, and she didn’t forget where she came from. To help out charities where she comes from is a great thing, and we appreciate it."
Kathleen Foran was feeling too poorly for an interview. In the past, she’s experienced an adverse reaction to the medication given to leukemia patients to help fight off nausea.
Bridget Foran related her niece’s thoughts on all the help she’s received.
"I think she feels like, ‘Hey, I’m not in this alone. There’s people here who care.’"