North Bend father battling brain cancer walks for a cure
June 24, 2010
By Laura Geggel
Al Clarke woke up one morning in May 2008 with a splitting headache that wouldn’t go away no matter how many Tylenol or Excedrin he took.
When the stay-at-home North Bend father drove his two daughters to school, he felt so ill he ended up rear-ending a car in front of him on the way to Snoqualmie Middle School.
Alarmed, his older daughter Jenn drove him home and found another way to get to Mount Si High School. She called her mother, who took Al to the hospital to get an MRI.
Al Clarke, a brain cancer survivor, has participated in the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk since 2008, the year he was diagnosed. His daughter, Jenn Clarke (left), joined him with the rest of the family at the walk. By Bobbye Finkelstein
“It was in the course of one day that what they thought was the flu was brain cancer,” Jenn said.
Al learned he had a brain tumor about the size of a Satsuma orange.
“By the next day, I had surgery and had it removed,” he said.
After surgery, he had chemotherapy and radiation. It worked so well, the cancer has not returned, but Al has to get an MRI about four times a year to make sure the cancer has not returned.
His family is fighting back in a different way. For the third year in a row, they are participating in the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk June 26 at Seattle Center.
About 1,500 patients in the Pacific Northwest have brain cancer, and many are given a survival rate of only one to two years. Last year, 22,000 Americans were diagnosed with brain cancer. This past August, Sen. Edward Kennedy died of the disease.
Proceeds from the walk will benefit several local brain cancer research centers, including the Ben and Catherine Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment at the Swedish Neuroscience Institute in Seattle.
Since the walk’s inception in 2008 by a group of committed volunteers and families, the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk has raised more than $400,000 for research, clinical trials, advocacy and comprehensive care for brain cancer patients in the Pacific Northwest.
The Clarke family hopes to raise $10,000, about as much as they raised last year.
Jenn said she likes supporting her father at the walk, and she has also found a way to support him year round. She just completed her freshman year at the University of Washington, and after the first quarter she moved home so she could be closer to him.
“I think the biggest thing is that I’m going to continue to support my dad no matter what and the walk raises money to help find a cure,” Jenn said. “If I can’t do anything personally to help the research, at least I can raise money to help it along.”
Al said the walk gives him hope for the future.
“I think it’s a great show of support and I think it’s also important not only just for me. Cancer affects so many people. It touches everybody. If it’s not in your family, it’s somebody you know,” he said. “I think it’s important to get out there and raise money and try to support the research and the care of people who are suffering from cancer.”
Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.
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