COMMUNITY
EVENTS B2

INSIDE.

CHARLYNN TOEWS

Harsh language
warning

his column contains language
which may offend some people.
Parental discretion is advised,
There are certain types of beings
who deserve criticism, and I’m not going to pull
any punches in naming them. They aré noisy,
they produce much garbage, they are error-
prone and egotistical, and they run far too many
of our organizations and institutions.

* Government

T hate to tell you this, but if you take a close
look at who it-is who is actually running the
show, who has the real power, who the behind
the scenes deal makers are, you will find every
single one of them is a homo sapiens . And this
is truc in all cases.

Oh, sure, the politicians will [bi]safei]y they
are going to make things ‘‘better.’’ Yeah, right.
Dil buy that fora dollar. Let’s face it, politicians
have no intention of ‘‘making things better.”
They are just in it to have their houses
videotaped during a police raid and their nether
regions discussed on CNN. Must be nice.

No matter what party they are running for,
they are all the same: humans. Even if you vote
for someone of a different race, gender, or age,
you are stuck with one real choice only: human,
human, or human. And we remember: what
they’re like; don’t we? They are error-prone,
“egolistical,

garbage-producing and noisy. And we elect
them to the highest of offices, lime after time
after time.

»* Electricians
They tell you: something” complicated, then

take-a long time to do the work, then charge you

a-whole bunch of money. Plus, some of them
wear their pants kind of loose and when they
bend over you think, ‘Gee, say No to crack,”
But what can you expect? Every single one of
them isa human, And don’t hope that things are
going to get better any time soon - I. understand

the trades schools are demographically and =
| statistically 100% human. No affirmative action
. here. ,

-* Plumbers

 Exacily as above, except worse because of the
.. personal nature of the problem.

* Hockey Players

A. million dollars to play like a bum, that’s
what these humans want. Hey, you can get all
the Eastern European players you like, all
they’ve pol there is humans, too.

* Those SOB NHL Owners

Taxpayers’ money for a new stadium? They
say they need to compete with the U.S, market
Where pro sports get wonderful tax breaks,
‘The market’? It’s not the market, stupid, it’s

~ the humans, See “hockey players’’ above, re:
inflated salaries.

And who do you think itis who’s buying tick-
els for your games? This‘is no advanced life
form from another planet filling your: stadium
“Seats and buying your beer — no way. It’s elec-
tricians, plumbers, politicians, and other bn-

_ mans, No wonder The Game is in such a mess.
- © Kids These Days

The sad but truce fact about what underlies
‘their need to wear shorts in winter, pierce their
faces, sport weird hait-do’s and so forth is thal
they are, even aged 13 -' 19, all humans, Noisy,
Egotistical, Garbage-producing.. Errer-prone.
And we jet them operate motor vehicles!

* Unions

Who is it who gets all the best. bigh-paying
union jobs? Humans! Who is it who’s running
all the unions? Humans! Oh, they take care of
‘their own, all right.

s Feminists

Again, we have to look at who is actually
_ pulling the strings in these organizations. Sure,
they work collectively and have: all these fancy
notions about divergent’ voices and empower-
ment. But take a gander at who, al the end of the
day, signs the cheques or runs the workshop, at
who controls the agenda. You’ll-find a human
every single time. Making mistakes and gar-
bage. Egotistical and car-splitting. Dve been
‘there, [ know it for a fact.

Nope, you won't find a dolphin wearing a
Jampshade after a few too many on a Friday
“night. You wan't catch a mouse trying to pass
phony $100 bills. A seal won't walk into the
kitchen then say, “Now, what did I want in
here?”

“If someone leaves toast crumbs all over the
kitchen counter or plays their tunes so Ioud you
can’t think or parks so close to your vehicle you

‘can’t get in the driver side door, or in some way
has done you wrong, don’t wonder about who

“was responsible, You can bet your last buck’ it.

was one of those humans! |
And this town is Full of thera.

_preparedness.’’

“plained,

“By ALEX HAMILTON
THE PHOTOGRAPHS
twelve-year-old Laura
Beaton carries around with
her in her knapsack tell the
story of her life.

One picture is of Laura at
age two. She is running in a
park; there’s abig smile on
her face.

Another is a photo of
Laura in the hospital months
later. She has little hair Ieft
on her head, and she looks

liny and weak, but her smile

is still there.

The other photos, taken of
Laura silting in a wheelchair
and playing with toys in the
hospital, further illustrate
the batile she had with
leukemia when she was a
toddler.

Now, ten years later, sit-
ting in the front row of her
Grade. Five classroom at
Centennial Christian
School, Laura is like any
other twelve-year-old girl.

She enjoys art class and
drawing. She worries about
her . handwriting being
messy, And she daydreams
about one day awning her
own horse.

But whal makes Laura dif-
ferent from the other little
girls is she would have died
in 1989 if mot for finding a
bone marrow match with
RCMP Inspector Gilles
Soucy of Montreal.

It can often take 100,000
donors to find a perfect
match, a circumstance that
drives home the need for as
‘many registered donors as
possible.

_ Although her bone mar-
row transplant surgery and
radiation and chemotherapy
treatments have Icf her with
scars and a limp, what Laura

TERRACE STANDARD .

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 7, 1999 - B!

3
—

ct

LAURA BEATON wears tinted glasses because the glare fr from bright lights hurts her sensitive eyes.

remains is a regular
adorable, funny, Little girl.

She is open and willing to
talk about the scars on her
neck and chest left from the
tubes that once pumped
fluids and medicine into her
body, and how the radiation
and chemotherapy has af-
fected her arms and legs.

When asked why her body
is the way it is, Laura
replicd: ‘‘Because that’s the
way lam.”

Even though the ireat-
ments left her body stiff and
cramped in places, Laura
can still run, play dodgeball
and shoot baskets with the
rest of her classmates.

It simply takes her more

lime to do some tasks.

Because her writing band
is permanently cupped; an
aide sits beside Laura all
day to assist her with keep-
ing up with the rest of the
class,

“Laura takes longer to gel
things down on paper,’” said
her aide Joan Todd.

“I need help taking notes ,

if the teacher goes to fast, ”
Laura elaborated. :

She added thal she could :

keep up with the wriling,
but only if she “wrote
sloppy.”’

‘And . T don’t want. ‘to
_ scribble,” she said.

To help her write easier,
she uses a slant board on her

It began with a limp

By ROSS McDERMOTT

IT WAS a typical day in
March, 1989, The mother
noticed her child, who was
soon to tum two, limping
slighily. She asked her
daughter if she was alrighi.

“Are you sore? Is some-
thing wrong?”

“‘No, no,”’ responded the
toddler. ‘‘T want to play, I
want to play,””

Diane Beaton remembers
that day, and ali the days
that followed through out
the ordeal, quite clearly.

The toddler. was her
daughter Laura, and: (hough
she had been “very healthy
al} of her life,’’ an illness of

. Often devastating propor-

tions was lurking in her tiny
body.
_ Laura had leukemia.

Diane said it was during a
shopping trip in Terrace
when Laura started to cry,
she was in pain.

“So I drove back to
Kitimat and I phoned the
doctor at his home,”

Kitimat physician, Dr,
Mills, was preparing to
leave on a ski-trip with his
family, Diane said, but he
stopped by the Beaton home
to have a look at Laura he-
fore he left.

“He very briefly checked
Laura over. Then he phoned
the hospital from our house
then said he would meet us
at the hospital in 15
minutes,’ she said,

At that point, Diane said,
she asked Mills what was
wrong but his reply was
very vague.

Once at the despital Laura
under-went blood tests and
xrays and within about 30
minuics, Mills diagnosed
her with lewkemia.

Diane said the diagnosis
was-‘‘a bil of a shock, But at
the same tinte,’’ she added,
*T had a

- As a Christian, she  ex-

feeling of |

“Thad a Very.
strong faith and I had been:

reading different portions of
the bible and one verse that

_kept coming back was ‘All

things work together for

. good to those that love the

Lord,’?’

She said she knew nothing
about the illness when Laura
was diagnosed, ‘‘except that
it was a death sentence,”

Al! she’d ever heard was
that children with: leukemia
died.

‘*So in that sense,’’ Diane,

said, ‘I didn’t know if I
would have -her for very
long, or for a very short
time. Tt was sort of like
walking into a fog. You
know something is in there,
but you can’t possible fath-
on what might be in-
volved.”

Laura was sent to Van-
couver for tests and treat-
meni, and Diane said during
her first meeting with the
doctor she was informed
Laura was a high risk, and
the leukemia was very prog-
ressive at that time. :

She said it was at that mo-
ment she discovered some-
thing that could be’ hetpful
to other parents who find
themselves in similar situa-
tions.

“The sooner you accept
what you can’t change, the
easier it is. Because. the
more you fight it the harder
itis to deal with inside.’?

Laura responded well ta
chemo-therapy, “‘sort of on
schedule,’? Diane said, The
doctors were pleased with
her progress and she was al-
lowed. to’ go home for a
couple of months.”

“She was. due fora sec-..

ond round of chemo,’’ she
said, ''When we discovered
she had relapsed,” Pn os

“When ~~ the Beatons
refirned to: Vancouver | it
was discovered Lawra had
not only relapsed, but bad
also developed a second
type of leukemia. -

“Obviously ihe chemo

alone was tiol able lo. con-

trol her leukemia, and so
teally her only chance for
survival was a bone marrow
transplant,”’ Dianc said.

Because a related donour
is preferable in this type of
procedure, the Beaton fam-
ily were tesled but il was
found none of them were a
suitable match.

‘There are six antigens in
ihe marrow that must
match,’’ she explained.

An unrelated donour was

the only remaining option —

but ‘al that time in 1989
there was only 15,000
people on the register and
the chance for finding a
match for Laura was over 1

‘in 10,000,” Diane said,

But. the Red Cross
searched through their list
and was able lo find a
donour.

“In Laura's case it wasn’t
a perfect match, but it was
the best they could hope for
at that time,”’ Diane pointed
oul.

But an cthical ‘question
arose, She said. ‘Da we put
her through a bone marrow
transplant when the chances

“oF her surviving were slim,

or do we just ‘Iet her enjoy
her last days.”

It was decided, Diane said,
to- give - Laura’ “the - best
chance for survival and the
family — opted. -for ~- the
transplant’ procedure. ;

The donour sclecied was
Gilles’ Soucy, an inspector
with the RCMP in Montreal.
© "When -we heard» there
was a donour-my imagina-
tion ran riol,”’ Diane said.

The transplant: took place
in the beginning. of Decem-
ber, but Diane said the wait
was an anxious time.

“T kept) ‘picturing. some-
thing happening to them:—
getting sick, or having an

accident. “So. 1 was -a_ bit
anxious?
Latira, she said, was

brought almost to the: point

of death: in: preparation for

the transplant.

desk that helps to clevate
her books,

The board also helps keep
her head up, because she
said her neck and other
joints often gel sore.

Since her operation, her
eyes have became very
sensitive to light, So Laura
wears linted glasses oulside

‘when there’is a lot of glare

and inside when the over-
head ‘projector.’ and other
bright lights bother her.

“TY don’t really like them
because they bug. me,”
-Laura--eaid;-referring to ber
glasses: ‘I look like a
bookworm!” =

Despite the. fact that her
hands aren’t as nimble or

LAURA BEATON meets

‘the recorder

quick as others, Laura plays
and draws
beautifully.

“7 plan on being an artist
when [ grow up,” she said.

She’s especially fond of
drawing horses.

In gym class, Laura is
treated just like any of the
other children,

She plays badminton, runs
for cight minutes around the
gym, and goofs around.

At home, she said likes to -

draw, watch TV, sncak ice
cream and eat hotdogs.
. When asked what -she’d
want if she could ask for
anything’ on her birthday
April 2, Laura replied:

“T’d ask for a horse!”

SECTION B
ALEX HAMILTON
638-7283

File phota
her bone marrow donor,
RCMP Inspector Gilles Soucy, from Montreal, in
1994,

"She had her total body
radiated, plus: chemo, “to

basically’ wipe. out: every-.

thing that she had within her
marrow,'? Diane explained,
The. ‘(ransplant “was suc-
cessful. and. today “Laura
lives tlie “fairly, normal life
ofa 12-year-old gil,
Diane said her entire fam-

ily is very gratefull to Soucy,

“because he kiew there was
to chance of her surviving
without it.!*

The! Beaton famtly and

Soucy still keep in touch.

In facl, Diane said, ‘Soucy
recently sent a parcel in the -
mall for ‘Laura's’ birthday
April 2.

“T think the fast tine she
jalked to him on the phone
was in December, around
Christmas time,” she said,
| The Beaton family, Diane
added, went-lo-visit him and
his-family.in Alberta a few
yCaTs ago.

“He's a wonderful : per-
son,’ Diane said. with a
smile, “very caring.”?

A warn, friendly rela-

tlonship has: developed-out:

of, whal could have Deen, a
tragedy,”

~All things work together
for. goad,” “Diane said,
referring to -her- favourite

bible verse. -