Mom's Letter to the Editor Sun Times
5/14/2004

Here's the link of the letter my mother wrote for the Sun Times if anyone is interested (remember to cut and paste): http://www.suntimes.com/output/letters/cst-edt-vox06a.html. NO LONGER AVAILABLE - see letter below.

It is a much shorter version of the original but hit the nail on the head. I've talked to some of you about fundraising ideas. Please keep them coming!!

love, me

Letter -- Make brain cancer awareness a priority

When you see people wearing a pink ribbon, you know they are supporting breast cancer awareness. If someone is wearing a yellow ribbon, it is in support of our troops. What about a gray ribbon? The gray ribbon is worn in support of brain cancer awareness. Somehow, some way, we have to make the gray ribbon just as well-known as a pink ribbon.

Before Sept. 5, 2003, my daughter, Lori Arquilla Andersen, was living a normal life. She had just gotten married on Memorial Day weekend. She had one class to go at UIC to get her degree in anthropology. Her husband, Erik, is an architect. They were looking forward to a bright future in their new house, which would someday include children. Somehow, this bright future turned into a nightmare.

In mid-August, Lori started to have what were later diagnosed as focal seizures. A doctor misdiagnosed her as having migraines. She decided to get a second opinion. This doctor sent her for an MRI on Labor Day weekend. On the following Tuesday, we all met with a neuro-oncologist and a neurosurgeon at Northwestern University Hospital. They had read the MRI and thought she had a benign tumor. She had surgery on Friday.

It took four days to get the results: She had a malignant brain tumor -- the worst possible kind of brain cancer, with a prognosis of one to two years!

The doctors feel the tumor was 99 percent removed. Since then, she has had three clear brain scans. She is still recovering. The road has been extremely bumpy, but so far so good. However, some are not as fortunate as she is.

This brings us to the gray ribbon. May 5-12 is National Brain Tumor Action Week, with events being held in Washington, D.C. I want to spread the word of what a gray ribbon represents.

There is a need to raise funds for research and offer hope for a cure. This year, more than 186,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with a brain tumor. Brain tumors are the second leading cause of cancer death in children under age 20 and the third leading cause of death in young adults ages 20 to 39. Incidences of brain tumors are increasing, and the reason is unknown. Improving a patient's outlook requires research into the causes of and better treatment for brain tumors.

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