Curry walks to fight leukemia

Sisters resident Melanie Curry will walk the Honolulu Marathon in December to fight the disease that nearly took her life.

Curry entered the December 12 Hawaii event to celebrate five years of remission from acute myelogenous leukemia. She will represent the Leukemia Society of America's (LSA) Team in Training program, hoping to raise $7,000 to support LSA's efforts to find a cure for cancers of the blood.

"I've never done anything like this before, and I thought that it would be a great way to celebrate and give back for everything that has been done for me in the last five years," Curry said.

Curry was diagnosed with leukemia in July 1994 and received a lifesaving bone marrow transplant from her brother Allan Herauf, also of Sisters, on November 8 of the same year. She has spent the last five years battling her body's rejection of the procedure.

"Five years is a very important date to anyone who has had cancer, because they consider you cured," she said.

"My marrow was destroyed by chemotherapy and radiation, and I was infused with my brother's marrow," Curry explained.

With the help of immunosupressants and steroids, she now feels well enough to walk the 26.2-mile marathon.

Team in Training (TNT) participants can enter one of four selected marathons around the United States in honor of a living leukemia patient or in memory of someone who did not survive the disease. Curry said the Honolulu Marathon was run once in her honor, and the Portland Marathon was walked in her name twice. She will walk the Honolulu Marathon in memory of two friends, Vickie Kingen and Eldon Wood, who did not survive bone marrow transplants received within a year of her own.

Curry said LSA is hoping to find a cure for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), the disease's most common form, by the year 2000. According to LSA, research funded by the TNT program, which was established in 1986, has increased the survival rate for children with ALL to nearly 80 percent.

Participants are required to raise $3,500 for their involvement, most of which goes directly to LSA. Travel and accommodations are covered by contributions. Curry is determined to double that goal.

"I'm going to show the people at the Leukemia Society that the city of Sisters has a heart," she said.

Curry will ask Sisters business owners to contribute what they can toward her efforts, and a donation jar is currently in place at Herauf's Sisters Smokehouse on Larch Street. In addition to seeking donations in Sisters, she will work with the surviving members of Kingen and Wood's families to supplement her local efforts.

Curry can be reached at 549-4751 for contributions or information, and donations can be made in her name by contacting LSA's Oregon Chapter at 6501 SW Macadam, Portland, OR 97210, or by accessing LSA's web site at http://www.leukemia.org.