Leukemia

John Wister elementary in Germantown is the little engine that could. "We're a quaint, small school," says teacher Marcia Sparagna, "but there's a big sense of community there. " In her classroom, two students clasp hands and dance while an unexpected voice - Dean Martin's - croons: "When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's amore . " The jubilation in Room 211 is due to Sparagna's third and fourth graders winning a pasta party for raising more money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society than any other Wister class, $450 in three weeks, predominantly in coins, the majority pennies, a whole lot of pennies.

Mike Staub's freshman spring semester at Widener University was progressing on schedule. The linebacker from Cardinal Dougherty High was working out, preparing for next football season. Then, Widener coach Bill Zwaan said, Staub started feeling run down a few weeks ago. "He went to the Poconos after a fraternity formal dance and got sick," Zwaan said this week. The first diagnosis was pneumonia. Further tests revealed something much more serious. "There are two [primary]

Yanick Dupre, a left winger for the Hershey Bears and the Flyers, has leukemia and will return to his home in Montreal today for treatment, the Flyers said yesterday. Dupre, 23, played in 12 games for the Flyers this season and scored two goals, including his first in the NHL on Jan. 3 at San Jose. He had 20 goals and 36 assists in 52 games with the Bears. Dupre's doctors say a bone-marrow transplant will be attempted, and remission through chemotherapy is expected. His older sister, Nancy, will be tested next week to determine whether she is a match with Dupre.

A new state study of more than two dozen northeastern New Jersey towns finds a connection between contaminated water supplies and the incidence of leukemia among women. The study, conducted by the New Jersey Health Department, suggests that drinking water contaminated by volatile organic chemicals, which are used in dry cleaning, metal degreasing and industrial solvents, may be a cause of leukemia among women. But the findings are carefully qualified, and state authorities took pains yesterday not only to vouch for the quality of New Jersey's drinking water, but also to point out that they have yet to find a direct cause-and-effect relationship between water contamination from volatile organic chemicals and cancer.

San Francisco Giants reliever Steve Bedrosian missed last night's home opener to be with his family after learning his 2 1/2-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia. Bedrosian, who won the 1987 Cy Young Award with the Phillies, left the Giants and returned to San Francisco after Tuesday night's rainout in Atlanta. A lump was discovered on Cody Bedrosian's left forearm on Tuesday, and the child also had a fever and pain in his right shoulder. He underwent a battery of tests Wednesday and Thursday at UC San Francisco hospital.

Ingrid Elizabeth Wilson, 21, a spirited college student who hoped to pursue a career in the child-care industry, died yesterday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital from complications associated with leukemia. She was a lifelong resident of Lansdowne. A 1986 graduate of Friends' Central School, where she was a field hockey and lacrosse player, Miss Wilson attended Gettysburg College for two years and, after becoming ill, transferred to the University of Pennsylvania last year.

Kelly Allen should be in the second grade at St. Eugene's school in Clifton Heights, but the 7 1/2-year-old has a private tutor instead. Kelly cannot go to school because she has leukemia and is recuperating in Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore from bone-marrow treatment performed there last month. She could be hospitalized for up to 100 days, said her father, Albert Allen, and the hospital bills could be astronomical. Even though there is health insurance, Allen said, the family still might have to pay out many thousands.

"Sometimes my hands don't work right, and I hobble when I walk," said 18- year-old Craig Wilson. But when Wilson, who suffers from leukemia, received special recognition in the Senior Awards Assembly held at Collingswood High School on June 16, he stood straight with his head held high as his classmates gave him a standing ovation. Wilson and Colleen O'Connell were the first recipients of the Rudy Yeager Scholarship Award, given to a male and female student for leadership excellence.

In the heart of the Pocono Mountains, at a camp hugged by thick woods and a small, clear lake, Betsy Heckler shared campfires, craft classes and canoe trips with 100 other young people, paying special attention to the shy, the scared, to those who needed a friend. For them, she always made a special effort. And when Catherine Elizabeth Heckler - known as Betsy - died Saturday at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, she was remembered as a courageous 19- year-old who lived her short life to its fullest and, in the face of her leukemia, constantly touched the lives of other cancer patients as well as those of her own friends and family.

John Henry Williams, the son of late Hall of Famer Ted Williams who was at the center of a controversy over his father's remains, died yesterday of leukemia at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 35. After Ted Williams died July 5, 2002, John Henry Williams had the body of the former Boston Red Sox great taken to Alcor Life Extension Foundation, an Arizona cryonics lab, setting off a battle with his half-sister, Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, who said her father had wanted to be cremated.

John Wister elementary in Germantown is the little engine that could. "We're a quaint, small school," says teacher Marcia Sparagna, "but there's a big sense of community there. " In her classroom, two students clasp hands and dance while an unexpected voice - Dean Martin's - croons: "When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's amore . " The jubilation in Room 211 is due to Sparagna's third and fourth graders winning a pasta party for raising more money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society than any other Wister class, $450 in three weeks, predominantly in coins, the majority pennies, a whole lot of pennies.

DORAL, Fla. - Playing only his sixth round of the year, Adam Scott faced a strong test Thursday at Doral and never looked better. In fierce wind on the TPC Blue Monster at Doral, Scott kept the ball in play and then hung on for a 6-under-par 66 that gave him a share of the lead with Jason Dufner in the Cadillac Championship. It was a battle all day for Rory McIlroy in his first event as No. 1 in the world. He wound up with a 73 in the World Golf Championships event. Tiger Woods wasn't much better.

Warren Weiner, 68, of Villanova, executive vice president and an owner of Deb Shops when the national chain was sold in 2007, died Monday, Feb. 13, of leukemia at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. At the time of the $395 million sale to a private equity group, the chain was reported to operate 337 stores in 42 states from its headquarters and warehouse near Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The report stated that the firm was, in large part, a "retailer of clothing, shoes, and accessories for young women.

NEWARK, N.J. - Federal officials will provide a humanitarian visa so a 5-year-old New Jersey girl can get a lifesaving bone-marrow transplant from her Salvadoran sister. The decision, announced Friday night by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), means U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will allow 7-year-old Gisselle Bonilla Ramirez to come to the United States to donate marrow to her sister, Yarelis Bonilla. The younger girl, a U.S. citizen, is undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia.

NEW YORK - Scientists are reporting the first clear success with a new approach for treating leukemia - turning the patients' own blood cells into assassins that hunt and destroy their cancer cells. They've done it in only three patients so far, but the results were striking: Two appear cancer-free up to a year after treatment, and the third patient is improved but still has some cancer. Scientists are already preparing to try the same gene-therapy technique for other kinds of cancer.

With his blood cancer progressing and standard chemotherapies no longer working, the patient decided to try an experimental gene therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. Twenty-two days after getting a very low dose, he had to be hospitalized because of toxic effects on his kidneys and liver - a problem the researchers had anticipated but considered unlikely. And then, the very next day, something happened that the researchers had not anticipated, despite 20 years of refining the gene therapy.

I got the call. Not the one that Matt Szczur and others have received, informing them that they were a match to be bone-marrow donors. About 15 years ago I got the second call, the one telling me that I had to come in for a second blood test because I was a potential match. Or one step away from maybe having the chance to save someone's life. I experienced a range of emotions, about what I might have to go through and what it all could mean. I wasn't afraid, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little anxious.

IN MY LINE of work, I deal with the public. Mostly, I briefly converse with them and forget about it shortly afterward. But recently I had an encounter I found striking. A middle-aged man approached me, and I began by asking him how he was. "Great! My son just got cured of leukemia. " I told him that was wonderful news indeed, but then admitted to a lack of knowledge on the subject and said I was unaware there was a cure for leukemia. He replied, "Oh, yes. Stem cells. " I hadn't thought of that, but I'm a political animal, so I reminded him that Republicans are generally vehemently opposed to stem-cell research and their members of Congress are always make an attempt to block funding for it, regardless of its importance to those suffering from various diseases.

A LONG TIME AGO, I covered the Flyers. Over the weekend, when Brian Boucher got the Yanick Dupre award for being a class guy with the media, I started thinking about Dupre, who died more than 13 years ago and seems to have slipped completely out of Philadelphia's sporting consciousness. I doubt many of the fans who saw Boucher accept the award had any idea who Dupre was. That's a real shame. He was a courageous kid who should have had a solid NHL career, and gone on to live a full, rewarding life.

SIX-YEAR-OLD Enzo Pereda is battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. From his sickbed, he'd rest in his mother's arms and watch Ina Garten ("The Barefoot Contessa") on the Food Network. Enzo loved her show and wanted to meet her. Last year, the Make-A-Wish Foundation reached out to Garten, but the Contessa, considered a "good friend" of Make-A-Wish, told them her schedule was too busy to meet the boy. So Enzo waited. And waited. When Make-A-Wish came back this year with a reminder about his request, Garten's representatives responded with a definite no, saying the Contessa can't fill every request she receives.