THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 2, 1996 TAG: 9601310166
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Mike Savage turned 30 Jan. 1 and is on a quest that is both personal and philanthropic.
He is in training for the Big Sur Marathon, an endurance run to be staged on the rocky California Coast April 28.
Savage, who calls Virginia Beach home, will be running the 26.2 mile course with the 100-member Leukemia Society of America Team from Atlanta.
It'll be his first, and he's determined to run this one for his mother, Mary Babb Savage, a leukemia victim, and others across the nation who are similarly afflicted.
Mary Babb Savage was diagnosed in May 1994 with acute myeloid leukemia. After extensive treatment, she says, the disease is now in remission, giving her and her family welcome relief.
She has returned to her normal daily activities. These include going to the office at the Garris Travel Service on Laskin Road, shopping, working out at Wareing's Gym, going to football and basketball games at the College of William and Mary, her alma mater.
``I have a positive attitude,'' she says. ``It's the best way to deal with the problem. And, my family is very supportive.''
Mike, the youngest son of Richard V. and Mary Babb Savage, said he has searched for ways to enter the fight against the disease, and decided in November to join the Leukemia Society team in training in Atlanta. He moved to Atlanta in June to take a job with a management consulting firm.
Joining the race will serve two purposes. First, it'll help raise money for the leukemia fund and thereby underwrite continued research for a cure for a disease often called ``cancer of the blood.'' Secondly, it'll offer Savage a sense of personal achievement, because the marathon is one of the most grueling of all athletic events.
Significant progress has been made in the crusade to find a cure by the year 2000, Savage says, and extensive funding is needed to make sure that research continues.
His personal goal is to raise $2,800 as a member of the Atlanta team, which has set its sights on collecting more than $300,000 in contributions. With a little extra effort and some luck, he hopes to collect $6,000 in donations on his own.
To reach that goal, he has mailed hundreds of letters to friends and family members throughout Virginia and Georgia and talked up the effort with people he meets wherever he goes. Those who wish to contribute can do so, he says, by sending their checks to the Leukemia Society, in care of Mike Savage, 101 Verlaine Place, Atlanta, Ga. 30327.
Long distance running is something new to Savage, a rangy, blond haired, young man who did most of his running in earlier years on basketball courts at First Colonial High School, Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, Pa., and at William and Mary.
Daily training in Atlanta consists of running 10 to 12 miles to prepare him and team members for the hilly California terrain this spring.
The cumulative pounding has begun to take a toll on his knees, he concedes. After workouts, he frequently ices them down to ease the swelling and the aching.
But, he's not in the race to break records, he'll tell you. He's in it to finish - and to bring in big bucks for the fight against a deadly disease that has inflicted his mother. by CNB