SANTA ANA : Athlete Trains to Run for Leukemia Society

Six days a week, Paul Pancoe jogs, swims and rides a bike to prepare for the upcoming San Francisco marathon. But he doesn’t do it for fun.

He does it to help save the lives of many people he has never met.

Pancoe, 38, is training for his first marathon in 10 years, in an effort to raise money for the Leukemia Society of America and help find a cure for the deadly disease.

“I used to be an athlete and I looked at this as a way to help people. It’s a good deed and it needs to be done,” said Pancoe, who has already shed 30 pounds while training for the race.

Through recent fund-raisers, Pancoe and his co-workers at Ingram Micro in Santa Ana have helped raise $8,000 on behalf of a Lake Forest girl suffering from the disease. Although the money will not go to benefit 9-year-old Christine Muratori directly, it will pay for research to help children like her.

The Leukemia Society recently chose Christine as Paul’s fund-raising partner and the two have become friends.

“He’s a nice, funny, kind man,” said Christine, who lives in Lake Forest.

For her part, Christine is pleased to help raise money to find a cure so that other children won’t have to go through the years of painful treatment that she has endured.

She encouraged people to donate because “they’re not just helping me, they’re helping other kids that have it or they don’t know that they have it. This is so there could be a cure for more cancers.”

Meanwhile, she says, her own prognosis is good: “All the cancer is gone and we’re hoping that it will stay gone and not come back.”

Pancoe, who lives in Irvine, is one of 10 people countywide who will run in the July 31 marathon to raise money for the Leukemia Society. Each runner is paired with a fund-raising partner who has the disease, spokeswoman Denice Lanuti said.

Pancoe said that he is trying to raise an additional $7,000 during the upcoming race and is seeking donations.

“A lot of people so far have just given a couple dollars. We’ve been stressing participation over large donations and it’s worked out well for us,” he said.

Anyone interested in contributing may send checks to: The Leukemia Society of America, 1744 W. Katella Ave. 8, Orange, Calif. 92667.