Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 3, 1995 TAG: 9501030008
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LAURA ZIVKOVICH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But her Christmas tree lights up the living room of her Christiansburg home that she shares with her daughter, Sherry, who studies early childhood development at New River Community College. The house seems warmer still with her son, Rob, a banking and finance student at the University of Mississippi, home for the holidays.
"I am alive and living with cancer," said Board, Virginia Tech's university records manager.
She has a voracious and quick-spreading form of breast cancer and hopes to have a bone marrow transplant as treatment in her 21/2-year struggle with the disease.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 1992 and had a modified radical mastectomy the following November. After radiation treatments and chemotherapy, her cancer went into remission until June 1994, when the cancer reappeared in her liver.
"My only hope for a cure is a bone marrow transplant, and that would be a miraculous cure," said Board. "I'm hoping the upcoming treatment is the last treatment I'll need."
Board, a 20-year Virginia Tech employee, is insured as a state employee by Trigon, formerly Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Virginia, which does not cover bone marrow transplants as treatment for breast cancer.
State employees in other regions of the state may choose from several insurance agencies, one of which pays for bone marrow transplants for breast cancer patients, said Board. She is exploring to see if there is a way she can switch to this insurance company to obtain coverage for the bone marrow treatment.
Typically, those seeking bone marrow transplants not covered by health insurance must raise the money themselves to pay for the treatment and any complications that may arise.
To have the transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, her first choice, Board must meet medical guidelines, including reducing her cancer to less than 50 percent of its original size through chemotherapy. The treatments she has had since the beginning of August have been partially effective. She recently began using a new combination of three drugs to shrink the cancer by February or early March when she plans to have the transplant.
While Board is busy meeting the medical guidelines and balancing her treatments, job and family life, some Virginia Tech employees are helping her to raise $50,000, the downpayment needed before the center will perform the procedure.
Through the Virginia Tech Employee Fund established several years ago to help laid-off Tech employees stay afloat, employees are collecting money to help Board reach her goal. The Montgomery County Emergency Assistance Program manages the fund and collects checks through the mail as well as money placed in containers across the campus.
"We're just doing what we can. Hopefully the money will come in," said Betty Greene, an administrative assistant in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. On Dec. 15, the college sponsored a Karen Board Day encouraging the faculty and staff to wear pink ribbons promoting breast cancer awareness and to donate to the fund. Greene estimates that the fund has raised $2,500 so far but needs an additional $47,500 by February or early March.
"They have been a godsend. I don't know what I'd do without them," said Board of her fund-raising colleagues. "I want to make my health decisions on what is best for me, not my finances. One thing about cancer is you learn to live in the present, learn that we participate in our own miracle, our own treatment. I am actively involved in the decisions when they are made."
To make a donation to the Karen Board fund, send a check payable to MCEAP with VTEF/Karen Board designated on the memo line to P.O. Box 2243, Christiansburg, Va., 24068, or drop extra change into one of the containers on campus located in the University Bookstore, Dietrick Bookstore, Donaldson Brown Center, Johnston Student Center and 104 Hutcheson Hall.
by CNB