Lymphoma Victim, Family Fighting 20,000-1 Odds

Last November, Rick Bellinson, who has suffered from lymphoma for more than 11 years, took a turn for the worse.

Bellinson, 34, was told that the cancer had become more serious because 25% of his bone marrow had become diseased.

The North Hollywood man began receiving blood transfusions and spent several days a month undergoing chemotherapy. Over time, his doctor said, the treatment might reduce the amount of diseased bone marrow. Or it might not.

A bone marrow transplant would be the best bet, doctors said, giving him a 70% chance to be cured.

Refusing to take a passive role, Rick’s brother, Ben, and his sister, Barbara, decided to find a way to help. They offered to donate their own bone marrow, but tests proved that they were incompatible.

They were told that the odds of finding a matching type would be 20,000-to-1. Despite that daunting statistic, Rick Bellinson’s family has embarked on a campaign to find the bone marrow that can save his life.

About 60 family friends gathered Sunday at the Sherman Oaks home of his parents, Bernie and Harriet Bellinson, to discuss how to line up 2,000 potential donors. Already, the family said, about 150 people have offered to be tested.

Steve Miller, 37, of Van Nuys was one of them. “I give blood regularly and this is certainly no more difficult,” he said.

“We don’t want to just sit and wait,” Harriet Bellinson said. “We want to go out and find that donor. In the process of doing it, it is making us feel wonderful.”

Rick Bellinson said his family also has made him feel wonderful.

“I’m completely overwhelmed by what my brother and sister and parents have done,” he said.

Once the matching bone marrow is found, the procedure for the donor is a simple one. About 3% to 5% of the donor’s bone marrow is used during the transplant, which takes about an hour, and the amount taken out is regenerated in about a week, Ben Bellinson said.

For Rick Bellinson, the operation would be more complicated and fraught with the risk of his body rejecting the transplanted marrow. But it is a risk he is willing to face. Diagnosed during his senior year at UC Berkeley, he spent most of the last dozen years undergoing chemotherapy.

He has managed through it all to remain active, but the latest round of treatments left him so weak, he said, that “walking to the corner felt like running a marathon.”

Despite the pain he must endure, those who know him say he has refused to let the cancer color his optimistic outlook.

“He’s the one who cheers us up because he’s such a fighter and he’s so brave,” Harriet Bellinson said. “We are made cheerful because he’s here and because of his laughter and his hope and his sense of humor.”