Friends for Life of America Speaker Series

“An Evening with Lance Dalton”

March 2, 2003

Introduction by Steven D. Cohen, National Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Lance Dalton is a twenty-year-old sophomore from Perry, Florida, studying psychology at the University of Florida. Following his undergraduate studies, Mr. Dalton plans to attend graduate school and pursue a Ph.D. in counseling psychology. His research will focus on helping children and their families cope with chronic illnesses.

Please join me in welcoming Lance Dalton.

Speech by Lance Dalton

Thanks for the introduction, Steven. When Steve asked me to talk, I was more then happy to accept. I think it is so important for members of this organization to hear success stories and the positive influence they have on the people they are working so hard to help.

So I want to tell all of you about my story.

I was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma in my left femur in October of 1993. I was ten years old and two months into fifth grade at the time.

The whole thing was and is still very confusing. At the time, we were tearing up the deck to our pool and my leg started to have this throbbing, intolerable pain. It took me 1000 milligrams of darvaset just to get me to sleep at night.

So after a week of this, we went to see our family doctor who took x-rays, but said that he saw nothing wrong except for two puncture marks on my thigh. He said that it's probably nothing more then an allergic reaction to a spider bite. I got some steroids and more darvaset and was sent on my way.

After another month with no change, I went to see a new doctor, got more x-rays, and found out that my last doctor missed the fact that two-thirds of my thigh bone was gone. Three days after that, I was getting an MRI and a CT-Scan. Less than a week later, the results come in, and I was in the hospital getting a biopsy done and starting chemo that same day.

Since then, I've been through four different protocols of chemotherapy. I've had a bone-marrow transplant, a lifetime dosage of radiation, and a lifetime dosage of a certain chemo drug that has increased my heart's blood-pool to dangerous levels.

All of this cost my parents a little over $450,000, not including my bone-marrow transplant financed by Children's Medical Services which ran a bit over $250,000. So as you can see, having cancer isn't cheap. I was diagnosed at Stage-5, the highest and worst case scenario and given a 5% chance of survival in '93.

So it was all a flurry for my family, but something must have worked out. I think an important thing for people to know though is that I've never regretted having cancer. It's changed my life in just so many ways. It’s been so amazing for me to speak to you now, speak for the American Cancer Society, be a representative for Relay for Life, and most special to me, attend and work at the Boggy Creek Gang Camp.

But it's important to know that this isn't the same for everyone. Not everyone meets their best friends during treatment, or even makes it. So the more support, both emotional and financial, that you can provide, the better off patients and families will be.

My big thing about Friends for Life of America is that I remember hearing about Hearts for the Holidays my last year in the hospital. I think I even got a card. And it was awesome to know that there was an organization dedicated to helping people like me. And just to let you all know, your cards do get to the patients. It’s so awesome thing to see how much this organization has already grown and how much growth you have left to do.

Good luck!