Event to help battle cancer

Sept. 9, 2005

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - Scott Riley was 26 and had been having chest pains for a couple of days when his doctor told him he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Tonight, more than two years after his battle with cancer began, Riley, his wife, Tina, and their two children will be walking at Iditapark.

This won't be just a family outing, however. The family will be helping raise money for the annual Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light the Night walk.

Tina Riley still keeps close track of the time since Scott had emergency surgery to remove his football-sized tumor.

Her husband has benefited from the society's research, according to Riley. His chemotherapy was called a "smart bomb," she said, which means it looked for and destroyed only cancer cells. Although it was hard, it would have been worse if he'd had chemo that destroyed cells indiscriminately. "He's been in remission for two years and five months," Tina Riley said.

Madeline Matta, 10, felt fine last fall, except for joint pain that would move from place to place around her body. Her joints swelled to the size of softballs.

"That's pretty big for a little girl of 9," said Matthew Matta, Madeline's father.

But during a snowstorm last November, Madeline became very ill and her mother had to drive her in to Anchorage.

"Alaska Children's Hospital was wonderful," Matta said. "They drew blood and gave us a diagnosis of acute lymphomic leukemia. Within 24 hours, we were airlifted to Seattle."

Once there, Madeline had more blood work to find out the exact type of ALL she had, which allowed the doctors to use the precise chemotherapy treatment that would help her most, according to Matta. Now on a maintenance of chemo, Madeline has been home for about a month and has started school again.

"Right now she is like the old Madeline before," Matta said. "She's healthy and she's jumping around."

The whole Matta family will be at Iditapark for Light the Night, including Madeline's older sister and brother.

He's happy, Madeline's father said, to offer a voice to speak for the group. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society helped financially, according to Matta, and Kelly Marré, chairman of the local society, gave them lots of support during their ordeal.

Participants will carry balloons lighted with battery packs - white for survivors, red in memory of someone. The Rileys and the Mattas will carry white balloons.

Marré got involved in Light the Night in 1999, a year after her son, Logan, succumbed to the disease at age 11.

"When he was sick, several people ran a marathon, raising money in his name," Marré said. "That meant so much to Logan, and he wanted to raise money, too. So the next year, we did a memorial walk for the first Light the Night in his name."

The Marrés will carry a red balloon for Logan.

The walk, an easy 2 miles, begins at the Garden of Reflection at 7 p.m., with registration starting at 6 p.m. Many local businesses have donated items for the silent auction, which will take place from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. Alaska Splendor Limousine will be offering $5 rides in their Hummer Limo from 5-7 p.m. After the walk, Dave Reno will perform in the amphitheater.

In conjunction with the walk, the Blood Bank of Alaska will be in the park with its LifeMobile from noon to 7:30 p.m. for the third-annual Kathleen Walker-Williams & Logan J. Marré Memorial Blood Drive and Bone Marrow Registration.

"They are an event separate from us, but so many cancer patients need transfusions and marrow transplants, we combine our efforts," Marré said. "We are inviting those who would like to be on the national bone marrow registry to come down."

There is no charge to anyone who wants to donate.

All proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which, since 1949, has invested more than $360 million in research targeting leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Last year's walk in Wasilla raised about $20,000 and organizers are aiming for $30,000 this year, according to Marré.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.