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In the early 90's my brother, Russ Bell, was diagnosed with Testicular cancer during his Junior Year of College. Overnight, he was transported to M.D. Anderson in Houston, Texas where he stayed for the next year and a half, fighting for his life. The same year my father, Larry Bell, was diagnosed with Lymphoma, and started down his own path as he fought to extend his life for as long as possible. Ten years later, his fight ended and he died at the age of 57.
My whole family is musical. We all sing, we all play instruments, we literally have family talent shows. My brother Russ, played the guitar and sang for the hospital nurses during his treatment. Cancer free, he now plays across the country in the band The Bell Brothers.
At my fathers memorial, the whole crowd burst into song as a celebration of his life. So five years ago, I came up with this concert series as a way to gather people together and let us experience a world that is better with music & art.
Before my dad died he said to me, "You'll do something a little different with your life. I don't see you behind a computer. I hope that you'll continue down the path of performing and perhaps weave teaching into the journey." Amazing how right he was! I have decided to pick a family each year that needs help from the community as they embark on their journey.
John Franco went to high school with my brother Scott...In Saint Francis' production of Grease, Scott played Danny Zuko and John played Johnny Casino! I remember seeing him in that production when I was little, and thinking, wow my brothers friends are cute! Liz, John's wife, is currently on staff in Campus Ministry at St. Francis. They have two little girls, Madison and Samantha for whom this journey will, for obvious reasons, be especially tough. Read about John's diagnosis, and consider buying a VIP ticket or donating a little more to help this family continue to fight.
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On September 24, 2008, while watching television at 10:30pm with my wife Liz, I experienced the mother of all headaches.
Big One! Whole head!
Nothing would get rid of it.
Eventually fell asleep from exhaustion. The next day, I went to my family care physician to get the headache checked out and he had me get a CAT Scan and set up an appointment with a neurologist. At 6pm that night, after office hours in an empty hospital, the neurologist revealed the results of the Scan--a 6cm mass was discovered in the right frontal lobe of my brain and needed to be surgically removed ASAP because of its size and the symptoms I had experienced.
I drove across the street to Stanford Hospital, parked in the parking lot, took a deep breath and called my wife to break the news, then admitted myself to the hospital through the ER. The next day, a majority of the tumor was surgically removed without side effects, in a successful 7-8 hour right frontal crainiotomy.
About one week later, the pathology report revealed good news about the type of tumor that was removed. The diagnosis was a slow growing, grade 1, Ganglioneuroma, believed to have been forming over a period of 7-8 years in my brain. Following surgery, the program was to heal from surgery, then monitor the tumor with MRI's on a regular basis to keep an eye on its activity.
The first MRI was scheduled 6 months after the surgery and should have revealed little to no recurrence/regrowth given the diagnosis and tumor type. Instead, the 6 month MRI showed a tumor mass growing adjacent to the original tumor location that had grown to approximately 25% the size of the original tumor in a short 5-6 months. NOT GOOD NEWS. A week later, I was scheduled for another surgery on March 2nd 2009--a biopsy--to drill a hole and take a sample of the tumor type to determine what category of tumor this is. As it turns out, the tumor had changed from the least aggressive type of brain tumor to the most aggressive type--a Grade 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM).
This marks the beginning of our battle against Brain Cancer--thanks for joining me in this FIGHT!
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