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Developing
the web site has given you a unique opportunity to not only help
your nephew, but so many other people who have been diagnosed with
cancer.
I don't
know that I've thought about it that much. I guess I've got kind of
a focus towards my nephew, but it's true. Hopefully we can get it
going and make it a success for everybody.
How is it
going?
It's
doing really well. I'm actually very happy and surprised that we get
about 150 people a day. But we definitely have to try to get over
that next hump, try to increase traffic to the site and get as many
people as we can.
Do you think this is, or could be, a more effective tool
for charities, instead of the more traditional methods for spreading
awareness and raising money?
I don't know if it's more effective
just yet, but it's far more interesting. It makes it easier for
people that can't really donate because it's not their money. It's a
nice niche because people want their web site advertisements to be
seen. And there's not much to do on my web site but to see who's
advertising.
You must be hearing from many other people through the web
site who are sharing their personal stories with you.
I've had a few
people ask me to put their own charities on. Some people have
mentioned that they only donate to charities that have something to
do with animals. It's like, "Well, that's nice, but..." I've heard
some tough stories and some enlightening ones as well.
Considering
your background in scientific research, has understanding cancer
from a technical point of view had any effect on how you or your
family has dealt with your nephew's diagnosis?
I think I get sadder sometimes. I
think we're pretty pessimistic as a group because my mother's a
nurse, my brother's a paramedic, my brother's going through it with
his son. It makes it easier to understand that other people have it,
but now that it's in our family, we tend to focus on the negative a
little bit because it's basically a needle in a haystack. Andrew was
considered in remission for the majority of those three years he was
on chemo. Then he was off chemo for about four months and they
discovered more. ... I'm kind of funny with the whole thing. I
almost don't believe it because they diagnosed him so quickly. He
never looked sick. He has never looked sick through the whole thing.
Basically he was having odd diarrhea and occasional stomach pains.
They thought it was just a flu virus, a stomach virus and then they
did a blood test and he was just loaded with leukemic blood cells.
I'm still in denial, even though I know what's going on. I have no
way to express it, so I try to express it through my site.
How is your
nephew handling all this?
He did really well for the first three years because he
kind of grew up with it. But it's a lot tougher on him now. But he
puts it in a perspective that a kid would understand. He can't go
swimming anymore, he can't play much anymore.
What is his prognosis?
His real only
chance of survival now is the bone marrow transplant because he's
gone through one round of chemo, which was unsuccessful. They can
give him other kinds of chemo to basically maintain it where it is,
but he needs the bone marrow transplant. But the good news is they
do have four bone marrow matches in the registry, which is very
exciting.
Where did you expect your interest in science to take you?
Actually, I
always wanted to go to medical school. Originally I wanted to be a
doctor. When I went to school, I figured I needed to do something to
kind of build something more than an academic career, so I got into
an honors research laboratory doing medical research. And then, when
I got out of college, I worked for Tufts Veterinarian in Grafton.
Then I started to get into more computer-based stuff, basically
computer imaging with science. My original desire to go to med
school, I guess I liked research so much at the time and then, when
I started getting into computers and research, I realized I liked
computers a lot more. With scientific research they basically say
it's a 99-percent failure. I didn't handle that well. But with
computers, it's definitely a science, you don't know what's going on
in that machine and things go wrong constantly and basically you use
the same methods to diagnosis what's going on there, and you have
about 99-percent success, so, I like that. [laughs]
How did you get
the web site going?
When I started this whole thing, I knew how to build
databases, I had been doing it for about three years or so. I built
a web site in my work, it was terrible. But I didn't know how to
make the two talk to each other, that was an important part. Every
time you click that button you have to keep track of information and
you have to figure out who's coming there. When I had the idea to do
it, basically I had no clue how to get that all to work together. I
bought books and I started playing. I bought a computer -- I didn't
even have a computer when I started it. It was just a great learning
experience. I'm amazed that I got it going, actually. Even more
amazing is the response. It's become quite addicting actually,
looking at the statistics every day, seeing how many people are
looking at it. I can tell where they're coming from. We're getting
people coming from more than half the states in the U.S., a couple
provinces in Canada, Vietnam, Turkey, Japan. All of this is word of
mouth because I cannot afford to do any advertising.
Are there
other web sites like this out there?
There are actually quite a lot of
them. The one that basically gave me the idea was called The Hunger
Site. They all pretty much look the same at this point. The Hunger
Site, they actually get about 200,000 to 400,000 clicks every single
day. I think they raised about $5 million in 8 months. I don't think
mine is going to be that popular too soon. But, that was basically
the vision. When I built the web site, [his nephew] was already in
remission and everything was working great and I said this would be
a great thing just to do. Most people aren't proactive until
something happens in their family, which is the sad reality. If I
could get 200,000 to 400,000 people clicking every day, maybe we can
find a cure before the next person, or the next person in your
family, gets it because it's just so prevalent out there. It's
basically all you can do is fund the people who will eventually find
a cure. I know that working in the field.
Was it difficult to get sponsors
for the web site?
It is very difficult to get people to sponsor, and, to be
quite honest, the sponsors that I have now are my brothers. It's
basically each of us are giving our own money to charity right now.
It's chicken and the egg type thing. I can't get major sponsors
until I can show I have lots of traffic, and I can't get lots of
traffic until I have sponsors. It's a little bit difficult.
As a
scientist, you learn to approach things methodically, but, as a
human being, do you ever feel totally frustrated or hopeless in
doing research for diseases such as cancer?
Actually, being in the field of
biotechnology, you know that to bring any drug to fruition it's
basically a 10-year process, if it's working well. They just do
absolutely amazing things in science these days. It's phenomenal
what they're discovering, what they will discover. I have a friend
who's sure he's going to live until 300 because of all the genetic
engineering [smiles]. I don't think it's hopeless. They're
definitely going to find a cure or a treatment for all this stuff.
It's just a matter of time. Cancer is one of the toughest that
they've been working on. They've made great strides, as far as
treatment goes. We're still not there yet. I think they will get
there eventually, all in time. Somehow we get smarter and smarter
every year. |
