DATE: Tuesday, October 21, 1997             TAG: 9710210214

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS, STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   37 lines

BENEFICIARY OF FUND DRIVE SUCCUMBS TO RARE DISEASE

A Cradock man who suffered a rare disease and for whom thousands of dollars was raised for a bone marrow transplant has died.

Spencer Evans, 26, died Sunday at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., about a week after the transplant surgery, said LaGina Reese, a friend of the Evans family.

Evans died of complications that developed after the surgery. His lungs and kidneys failed, and doctors also discovered that he had leukemia.

Last April, Evans was diagnosed with Fanconi anemia, an extremely rare genetic disorder that results in the inability of the bone marrow to produce basic blood cells and infection-fighting agents that keep most people healthy.

Doctors say a brother of Evans who died in 1984 at age 17 of acute leukemia may have had the same disorder.

Most patients afflicted with the disease are diagnosed as children and do not live beyond the teen years. Evans was healthy well into adulthood and even fathered a child, Trenton, who turned 2 last month.

Funeral arrangements are pending since many of Evans' family members were still in Bethesda Monday, Reese said.

This past summer, Evans' family and friends began raising money for the transplant surgery.

They collected money in canisters at Portsmouth businesses, sold doughnuts door to door, held a picnic and fund-raiser in Afton Square, and organized a car wash at an auto parts store. A neighborhood McDonald's donated a percentage of its sales.

``We'd like to thank everyone for their show of concern and support,'' said Reese, whose sister, Martina Hagerman, 23, is the mother of Evans' son. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Spencer Evans

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