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What Do Dinosaurs, Leukemia And The Byrd Theater Have In Common?
Posted by: Dan – May 12, 2011
Do you remember the first time you watched Jurassic Park? I do. As a thirteen-year-old boy in a full theater, it was an intense experience I doubt I’ll soon forget. Back then; Jurassic Park was no more than an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat dinosaur flick that oozed cutting edge animatronics and special effects. I know now, though, that Jurassic Park is much more than that. It’s a movie about how science, when exploited for unregulated corporate profit, can often be harmful to people and the planet. Jurassic Park is one of those classic films that someone like myself will likely watch every five or so years. But when will we ever get another shot to see it in the theater? This Saturday may be our last opportunity to do so.
Katherine Matthews is the campaign manager for her sister, Julie Matthews. Julie--a two-time leukemia survivor--was nominated for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Societies (LLS) Woman Of The Year. Katherine is spearheading a campaign to raise fifty thousand dollars in ten weeks in Julie’s name.
What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Watching a fictional movie about science going awry in the name of corporate profits while donating to a very real charity whose research might go on to help save you or someone you know.
I questioned Katherine to find out more about this event. This is what she had to say:
You've put together a Special screening of Jurassic Park this Saturday at the Byrd Theater to benefit The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). What’s the motivation behind your efforts?
One of my sisters, Julie, is a 2-time leukemia survivor. She was first diagnosed in January of 2005 and then relapsed in June of 2008. Since her diagnosis, Julie has volunteered and donated to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). She participated in Team In Training, which assists with training for half marathons, marathons, etc. while also fundraising for LLS. Julie and our family and friends also participated in Light the Night, which is a fundraising walk that raises awareness and money for LLS. This year, Julie was nominated to be Woman of the Year for the DC Chapter of LLS's Man & Woman of the Year campaign. Each vote is a dollar, and she has 10 weeks to earn as many votes as possible. Julie's close friend Lori and myself are her campaign managers. As a Richmond resident, I wanted to do something down here to gain support for her as well as something fun that I knew would interest people in our community.
Leukemia is a very complicated form of cancer that many people have heard of but might not understand. Can you explain what makes it so complex and why beating it twice is a difficult task?
Julie had acute myelogenous leukemia, which, from my understanding, is the most common type of acute leukemia and is also known as acute myeloid leukemia. Leukemia can be either chronic or acute--the difference being that chronic can be treated for some time whereas acute needs to be treated immediately. Myeloid is the type of bone marrow cell that is affected. There can be other forms of leukemia depending on the cells affected. I think my brother explained it to me best when Julie was first diagnosed: think of those impacted cells as a loaf of bread you stick in the oven. Instead of waiting until the bread is cooked, you remove it from the oven and it's all soggy and not able to be eaten. Leukemia does this to your cells--so your cells are just growing but not maturing to the healthy point that serves your body.
After Julie was treated once and relapsed, her only option was a stem cell transplant. That was a very scary time for everyone as we were unsure what would happen if it was not successful, or if we could not find a perfect match. Luckily, our sister Laura was a perfect match and Julie received the transplant. Julie had a great attitude and rarely complained. She was an inspiration. She had 22 bone marrow biopsies and spent months in the hospital but she took it all with a smile and confronted it bravely.
Why LLS and not something more local, like Massey Cancer Center?
Julie is a resident of the DC area so she was nominated for the chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in DC. I absolutely love the Massey Cancer Center and the work that they do, but this was something I wanted to do to support my sister's campaign. Julie was so amazing during all of her treatment and really showed everyone around her what it means to appreciate life and give back to people who have helped you. When she was first sick, she received a binder full of info from LLS and my brother would go onto LLS message boards to discuss the disease and its treatment options. You don't forget that kind of help during such a tough time. Because of organizations like LLS, the treatment options are not only less painful or arduous, but they are also more successful--for all blood cancers. Research funded by LLS helped contribute to advances such as chemotherapy, bone marrow and stem cell transplantation and new, targeted oral therapies such as Gleevec.
Your other sister Laura was Julie’s bone marrow donor. I've heard that the process necessary to donate bone marrow is extremely painful. How did Laura handle it?
Laura handled it so well; sometimes I think Laura was a perfect match for Julie in more ways than simply her DNA. Laura is outgoing and hilarious and took that with her every step of the way. The process was not what people normally think, where you remove part of the bone from the hip. It was done through IV and the only negative side that Laura experienced was flu-like symptoms due to a shot she received called 'The Growth Factor". This shot increased the amount of cells so that they had an easier time obtaining them for Julie.
Laura would tease Julie that she was her 'gift of life' and the Christmas after Julie received her transplant (in October), Laura's Christmas gift to Julie was a photo of Laura the day of the donation, right after Laura threw up, with a Santa Claus hat edited onto Laura's photo. The message with it was something like "Merry Christmas! Don't forget the greatest gift you received this year." Humor really helped our family. Before Laura left, my brother, his wife and I surprised her with a shirt that said, "My sister got my bone marrow" on the front, and on the back it read "And all I got was this lousy t-shirt." It may seem silly, but stuff like that really helped us all not to worry and focus on the positive.
Julie has been nominated for LLS woman of the year. Why was she nominated and how can RVA Magazine and our readers help her win?
Most people that were nominated in the Man & Woman of the Year Campaign are rather influential people in the DC community. For instance, the head of Pepco is running for Man of the Year. Julie is one of only 2 people nominated that had a blood cancer. She was nominated by a friend she met through a Life with Cancer support group. People can support Julie by donating to LLS in her name, and visit this site or follow her progress on twitter, and like her Facebook page. It's important to add that Julie and all of the candidates are doing this in honor of the Boy & Girl of the Year, Ryan Darby and Molly Farrell. They are both undergoing treatment--Ryan for leukemia and Molly for lymphoma.
You guys are promoting ten weeks of fun to help raise $50K for LLS. One of the events is a special screening of Jurassic Park this Saturday at the Byrd Theater. What else are you guys planning?
We just had a big party in the park with our neighbors, friends and family in northern VA last Saturday. That was a lot of fun and special because our neighbors have always been so supportive to Julie and our family. We had a moon bounce for kids, face painting, food, a hula-hoops contest, and a performance by a local Taiko ensemble, and we also had the Boy of the Year there! In the northern VA/DC area there will also be an event at a local bar/restaurant at which Julie worked, and Laura will be teaching a class on self-defense for women on Memorial Day weekend. In Richmond, I'll be having another event on June 1st at Mosaic Cafe on River Road where I will be guest bartending. It goes from 5-9PM so come on in!
Why did you choose a goal of $50K?
This is the 20th anniversary of the Man & Woman of the Year Campaign and the DC Chapter set a goal of $1 million for their campaign. Not only did 50K seem like a good number because it meant we were doing our share to raise that goal out of 20 candidates, but if you reach that amount you can also name a research project. Julie decided if we can reach that goal, she would like to name it after our Aunt's nephew, George Blatnik. He was diagnosed with AML in 1993 and received a bone marrow transplant, but he died not long afterwards. He was 28.
From everything I've read about blood cancers, there have been incredible leaps and bounds made in their treatment. It's truly astounding. George was diagnosed a little over 10 years before Julie's diagnosis and it felt right to Julie, to name the research project in his honor--to help save other lives and keep this medical progress going.
Why did you choose Jurassic Park?
I made a list of about 10 or 20 movies that I thought people of all ages would be interested in. I created a survey and sent it out to a bunch of people I know, of all different ages. This movie was clearly the most popular. It's been really exciting to see people's reactions when I hand out the flier--it's clearly a film that a lot of people enjoy and love! Most people I've talked to have a vivid memory of seeing it for the first time, as do I. My friend Joey, who did 2 great trailers for the event, noted that the movie's idea of giving a second chance to the dinosaurs is similar to Julie's 2nd and then 3rd chance. Luckily, her outcome has been happier than that of the dinosaurs. You can see Joey's trailers here and here.
Steven Spielberg, director of Jurassic Park, is coming to Richmond soon to work on the movie Lincoln. Have you made any efforts to contact him or his publicist?
I contacted the office of his publicist, Marvin Levy. It would be pretty cool to have this on the radar of the person behind this awesome movie. It's so exciting to see Lincoln coming here--it will be great for our community!
How much is a ticket to see Jurassic Park this Saturday and what percentage of those proceeds will go to LLS?
Tickets are $7 (cash only) and the door opens at 1PM. 100% of the proceeds will go to LLS. Also, for those in attendance on Saturday, you can enter a raffle to win dinner and a movie at the Byrd, as well as a raffle of $25,00 to win a car-- which is sponsored by LLS. The car raffle has odds of winning of 1:2500!
What if I have plans on Saturday and can't make the movie--how can I help?
Follow Julie's progress on twitter or like the campaign page on Facebook. Donations will obviously be helpful and can be made here. Additionally, consider being a regular blood donor. Since she was diagnosed, Julie has received over 100 blood transfusions. Join the bone marrow registry at www.marrow.org. Particularly if you're of diverse racial or ethnic heritage. Increasing the diversity of registry members also increases the likelihood that ALL patients will find a life-saving match--their own gift of life.
Damaged Andy
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