Shine OnBoston man quits job on a mission to cure wife’s rare cancer
When Rick Kaitz spent the better part of his young adult life running marathons for cancer charities the last thing on his mind was that one day he'd be running to save his wife's life.
An avid athlete who has completed the Boston Marathon four times, this 58-year-old man is currently preparing for one of the most important cycling races of his life at Pan-Mass this August. He hopes to raise 1.5-million dollars for his wife's rare form of cancer, after having already raised $200,000 at the Boston Marathon this April and another marathon last October.
It was only last June when his wife Erica Kaitz, 52, was diagnosed with a highly unusual form of uterine cancer -- myxoid leiomysarcoma (LMS) -- which is only found in less than 150 patients in the United States, reports the Boston Globe. Erica has an even less common form of the disease that affects between five and 20 people each year.
Rick consulted with three top medical institutions -- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloane Kettering and Duke University -- and each offered different opinions, but none projected a positive outcome.
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“We had three different recommendations for treatment,” Rick tells the newspaper. “It became clear that the top doctors don’t know anything about it.”
So in an effort to combat the grossly underfunded form of uterine cancer, he set up the Erica Kaitz LMS Research NOW Fund at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He recruited countless volunteers, many of Erica's family and friends, and is now on a mission to raise enough capital for scientists to come up with a treatment.
The volunteers ran the Boston Marathon for her and plan to cycle in the Pan-Mass Challenge in August.
An attorney at Sherin and Lodgen firm, Rick is on medical leave as he shuffles his wife to and from medical appointments, does all household chores, spends copious amount of time researching LMS, and manages the new foundation he set up.
"She appreciates everything I am doing but I don't think she particularly likes being the patient," he tells ABC.
He says he feels as though he's become a "research scientist" as he desperately works against the clock to raise funds to save his wife. He also knows that in the $35-billion war on cancer, his foundation's $1.5-million contribution is "peanuts."
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"[Erica's cancer] looks like it acts differently than other sarcomas and we worry that its behavior is more aggressive," says Dr. George Demetri, a Harvard medical professor and director at the Dana-Farber Foundation.
Prior to Erica's devastating diagnoses, the couple led a rather comfortable life in their Boston condo -- spending five months out of the year in their second home in Hawaii. Their two daughters are 21 and 23.
The couple met in 1986 on a blind date and have been married for 27 years. “We were engaged in six weeks and married in a couple of months,” says Erica.
Rick's fundraising will enable the Dana-Farber research team to learn more in collaboration with other scientists from top universities. However, Dr. Demetri is realistic about their chances of finding a treatment for Erica.
"As I tell Rick and Erica," he says, "you never know when we are going to trip over the next discovery."
He acknowledges that while Rick's funding may help scientists understand more about this class of tumors and help patients in the future, it may not provide any benefit for Erica.
What are your thoughts on Rick's efforts to help his wife? How many spouses do you think would do the same?
