We mock it now, the medical practice of bloodletting. Remember Steve Martin's "Medieval Barber" on Saturday Night Live?
"You'll feel a lot better after a good bleeding."
"But," says the man with an open compound fracture of the leg, "I'm bleeding already!"
"Say, who's the barber here?" says Martin. "Broomgilda, put a few leeches on his forehead."
Blood is the fluid of life. Even the ancients understood that. Might it also be the medium of malady? And, couldn't we make too much of it, much as a river floods? Our "humors" would be out of balance.
Today, we know that blood is almost always not the problem. We never have too much -- only too little -- and many of the illnesses past (Spanish flu) and present (diabetes) are not the result of "bad blood."
Unless, of course, they are.
Next weekend, two events highlight cancers of our life fluids -- leukemia and lymphoma -- and at least one possible remedy. And two kids will lead them.
At 7:30 p.m. Friday, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk in Little Rock takes place at the First Security Amphitheater downtown. The next morning, Colin Hall's second Fighting Red 5K to End Blood Cancer races over the Big Dam Bridge.
The Light the Night Walk is a 1-mile walk with illuminated lanterns: red for supporters, white for survivors, and gold in memoriam. This year's chairman is former cop turned Genentech drug representative Tim Willis, who walked last year partly because his company is a national sponsor of walks (and a merchant of blood cancer drugs) and partly because a fellow cop in North Little Rock, Micah Sexson, was sidelined by leukemia.
"The Light the Night atmosphere last year was just exhilarating. It's such a wonderful experience to see the survivors, to see the awareness, to see everybody -- it's a celebration."
"It is, it's a celebration," says Kim DuPas, the Arkansas division chief. "The people here, some of them are literally fighting for their lives, and they are hoping and praying for that cure.
"This brings them a little bit of reassurance that that's what we're fighting for."
Fighting? Reassurance? Enter Cooper Cody and Teecumpsy Wiggins, 7 and 10 years old, respectively. Cooper and Teecumpsy will be "honored heroes" spotlighted during the walk. Just a few hours later, Teecumpsy will skip over to Cooks Landing and be the titular leader of Team Teecumpsy at the Fighting Red 5K.
This time last year Cooper was in a back brace that immobilized his spine and neck for three months -- such was the damage from his pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Now, he can play with his sister Tatum and ride his bike around his hometown, Sheridan, despite continuing weekly chemotherapy treatments.
Teecumpsy had trouble breathing at night and complained of sore throats and headaches in the morning. Last summer she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. She needed a bone marrow transplant, but for the longest time she struggled to find a match, was the subject of local television news spots and started hosting her own "swabbing parties" (cotton swabs can collect enough DNA to be entered into the national database of donors). Then, a scientific breakthrough allowed her mother, previously a poor match, to step in and donate the bone marrow necessary to save her daughter's life.
Teecumpsy, who expects to be a college chemistry major and ultimately develop a therapy to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy, will also be at the Fighting Red 5K, which isn't so much a fundraiser (although it hopes to raise $10,000 for the Cord Blood Bank of Arkansas) as it is a big swabbing party.
Cord blood is the stem cell-rich blood captured from the typically discarded umbilical cords of newly born babies. Like embryonic stem cells (and unlike adult stem cells), cord blood cells can be used much like bone marrow to rebuild healthy blood production in leukemia patients.
The blood bank at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences stores public donations (parents who choose to donate anonymously) and private ones (stored at a price for use by the family, if ever necessary).
Hall's Fighting Red efforts have resulted in more than 7,000 people swabbed and logged in the last 2 1/2 years, he says. Of those, 138 have made matches. Of those, 13 life-saving transplants have been made.
These numbers illustrate the heady volunteer effort to find just one match, one transplant. On average, it takes a database of 20,000 people to make one match.
"The chances are so slim to find a match. Part of that is the lack of people represented -- the diversity represented -- on the registry. It's hard to find a 10 out of 10 genetic match. ... I had one lady come in who said her aunt found her match in Germany."
The Light the Night Walk begins at the First Security Amphitheater at 7:30 p.m. Friday, but check-in begins at 6 and a remembrance ceremony is set for 6:30. The event is an evening of hope and celebration, and those who have not collected pledges will not be turned away. Visit LightTheNight.org (and enter your ZIP code to find the Arkansas division), or call (501) 227-6416.
Last year, the Light the Night walk raised $60,000 from sponsorships and individual pledges of anywhere from $25 to thousands of dollars.
The Fighting Red 5K begins at 9 a.m. Saturday. It's a certified and chip-timed 5-kilometer race with medals and trophies for top finishers. Entry is $30 -- visit FightingRed5K.com -- or $35 the day of the race. Race-day registration begins about 8 a.m. Those who cannot be there but who are interested in registering as a possible donor can order a free swab kit at DeleteBloodCancer.org.
High Profile on 09/07/2014