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November 6, 2008
Please Help Save My Friend Chris!
It's not often that I ask you to do anything, other than eat your eggwhites This time I'm asking you to help a friend of mine who is very likely to die unless we help.
I met him just two years ago at the CR Conference. He bought me a beer and we argued about CR. He was in great shape, full of life, vigorous and funny and quite a bit sexy, which I did happen to notice but noticed with a great deal of respect to his wife who is of course the rightful owner. :)
Then just yesterday I read that he's been diagnosed with a cancer that is very likely to end his life within the year. But being the genius that he is, he has an idea. It may work, it may not. Either way, you and I could be part of making history.
Below is the summary MR wrote for me of the very complex technical detailed explanation of what Chris is trying to do. The short version is that I need you to complete a form and email or fax it in. If you are selected, you can donate little critters that live in the blood called granulocytes and a) find out if yours have the potential to fight cancer b) have the opportunity to help save Chris' life.
If you have lost weight and felt better with help from something you read on the blog... please fill out the form and do what you can to help Chris. If you have ever enjoyed a recipe, fill out the form and send it to everyone you know. If you even vaguely enjoy the blog, please fill out the form and do what you can. We could be a part of research that would save millions, and we could help save one of the most incredible men I've had the honor of meeting.
And let's face it, cute guys with brains are just way too rare on this planet. We can not let our own laziness contribute to losing one who has at least thirty more years of sexiness left in him, and obviously so much more to contribute to the world. No we can not. Fill out that form!
MR's summary:
ALL:
This post is both a plea and an offer: a is a chance to possibly save the life of a person who has helped advance life extension research; to contribute to advancing important cancer research that is currently stalled in bureaucracy; and to get what appears likely to be important data on your own, intrinsic anti-cancer defenses in the process -- data that you literally cannot get anywhere else in the world today, and at this rate may not be able to for a decade or more.
Chris Heward, one of the directors of Kronos Science Laboratories, has been diagnosed with Stage IV terminal esophageal cancer. His chances of surviving a year are less than 1%, even with the best available care.
After considering his options, he is trying to offer himself up as a human guinea pig for an experimental new cancer therapy under development by scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. In brief, scientists discovered that one of their mice was completely immune to any transplanted mouse or human cancers, resisting a million times the dose of cancer cells that is 100% lethal to other mice. The trait turned out to be heritable, so the scientists now have an entire line of these mice, and the key appears to be in a kind of white blood cell called a granulocyte. When the researchers looked in people, they found that there is a wide variation in the cancer-killing activity of these cells: some people’s granulocytes are extremely aggressive, others are quite effete.
The lead researcher presented at the Methuselah Foundation-sponsored scientific conference, Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioengineering Approaches. A video of this presentation, discussing all this in more detail, is available here:
http://www.vimeo.com/1650186
A proposed formal clinical trial is now on hold for rather dubious bureaucratic reasons, and the Wake Forest scientists cannot offer the potentially life-saving therapy to Chris (or anyone else). However, Chris may well be able to perform the proposed protocol himself, using the resources available to him. This might save his life, or give him a little more time, and whatever the results they will contribute to the advancement of science.
However, even for a person in his unique position, Chris can’t pull this off without help from a lot of people. First and foremost, he needs people to donate their granulocytes.
Granulocyte transplantation is already in routine clinical use to treat a variety of infections. However,to get enough granulocytes to carry out this desperate gambit will require donations from many donors, screened first for blood type and immune system compatibility, and then for maximum cancer-fighting activity.
If you donate and are selected, and if this experimental therapy does pan out, you might help save first this one man’s very valuable life, and later, be one of the people that played a crucial role in advancing a new treatment or cure for untold more victims of cancer patients. On top of that, we (yes, “we” – I’m offering my blood for screening, despite my terror of needles) will be in the unique position of knowing how robust an anti-cancer potency is harbored in our own white blood cells, decades before such a test might become as routine as a cholesterol panel is today.
Terrible as it is to ask, please do not contact me, Wake Forest, or Kronos with pleas, however desperate, to be included in any trial of this therapy. Wake Forest’s hands are tied, and Chris is only legally able to do this because it is entirely self-experimentation: none of these scientists or organizations can offer to perform this experimental protocol until duly authorized to perform human research. Chris can barely help himself, with out help; sadly, he cannot help anyone else.
If you are interested in volunteering, please send an email requesting a screening form to Wendy DOT Bezotte AT kronoslaboratory DOT com , subject line “Chris Heward Granulocyte Screen”, as soon as possible, and link to this post
Also, Chris has set up a Facebook page where he tells his story in a more personal way, and posts updates. Search "Chris Heward" and you will find him -- he's the smiling bald guy.
That's all folks. Let's see what we can do.
Posted by april at November 6, 2008 7:30 PM
Comments
One of the things that kept Frank donating blood/plasma/platelets as long as he was able to do so was being told one time that the emergency platelet donation they needed from him was to save a little girl. Breaking the anonymity made his donation incredibly more meaningful.
I would be extremely proud to donate my granulocytes, if doing so will help this person. Count me in! MoMR
Posted by: Judith at November 6, 2008 7:56 PM
MR,
Are there restrictions on being able to donate? I've tried repeatedly to donate platelets--I'm always turned away because my hemoglobin is too low. Apparently, I just can't absorb enough iron, even when I take supplements twice a day. I'm happy to try, but if the same restrictions apply to granulocyte donations, I'll probably be turned down.
Just wondering.
Robin
Posted by: Robin at November 7, 2008 7:14 AM
I've only been getting to read your blog about twice a month. I'm glad I read it today. I've emailed my offer of assistance.
I wish the best for your friend.
Jessica
Posted by: Jessica at November 7, 2008 4:02 PM
Hey April. So sorry about your friend's struggle. I wish I could help, but as a breast cancer survivor, I am not eligible to donate blood or platelets or plasma or marrow or anything, basically, because there will forever be a presumption that cancer cells could lurk. It's a terrible thing to have to put down in writing, but there it is....
Anyway, I hope lots of people sign up to help out...and my best wishes and prayers to your friend...
Lauren
Posted by: lauren at November 7, 2008 7:22 PM
I've sent it in. Hope I am compatible. No one in several generations in my family has had cancer. I bet I have the good granulocytes.
Posted by: Little MR at November 7, 2008 8:26 PM
Sorry to hear about Chris. Like Lauren, I'm ineligible (not to mention in a different country) but my thoughts are with him. I really do know what he's going through. Keep fighting, Chris!
Posted by: Lindsay at November 9, 2008 2:29 AM
aprilita,
I would be very happy to donate some blood for this. But how can I get my blood to the U.S from Turkey? will the folks at the given mail address know? Please let me know
love
z..
Posted by: zeynep at November 10, 2008 7:28 PM