Community Turns Out for Cancer Patient

Actress Victoria Principal sent a check for $5,000 and then called to make sure it had arrived safely in Alhambra.

State Sen. Gil Cedillo, whose wife died of cancer two years ago, dropped by last weekend’s “Yard Sale for Cancer Patient,” as it was advertised in the PennySaver, and told Marina Tamayo he’d do his best to help her.

A bus full of kids from a program called After the School Bell Rings pulled up to the house the day before the yard sale, and each child delivered a dollar to Marina. She beat cancer once and is gearing up for Round 2, but keeps getting turned away by insurance companies.

The yard sale proceeds will go toward rent and to start chipping away at medical bills that could be astronomical.

“I’m writing the rough draft of a thank-you letter,” a humbled Marina Tamayo said Monday about the hundreds of people who called, wrote or dropped by the yard sale at her sister’s home on Sherwood Avenue. “I’m amazed.”

I wrote about Marina last week after spending the morning with her at a family clinic in Eagle Rock, where she was hoping to find a doctor who would take her in without health insurance.

Marina, a 50-year-old widow and mother of four, fulfilled a lifelong dream earlier this year when she graduated from the USC nursing school. She worked while going to school, so it took her seven years to complete the program, and she was being treated for breast and lymphatic cancer much of the final year.

Marina appeared to have beaten the disease this past summer, but a recent checkup suggested the cancer had returned, just as her campus health insurance ended. She still doesn’t have a firm diagnosis, partly because she can’t find an insurance company that will cover her and pay for the tests she needs.

When I stopped by the home of Marina’s sister Hortensia on Saturday, the frontyard was covered with donated goods ranging from barbecues to televisions, and a mound of clothing looked like a relief model of the San Gabriel Mountains. Alhambra police had directed traffic earlier, and people were still streaming in by car and on foot.

It shouldn’t have to be this way, of course. You shouldn’t need a yard sale, or a story in the newspaper followed by TV news coverage, to get treated for a potentially deadly disease.

The story of Marina Tamayo is the story of failed national leadership and a disgraced medical insurance industry. It was frustration and compassion -- along with a “There, but for the grace of God” sentiment -- that sent people flocking to Alhambra.

Bob Lopez, owner of Tech Network Services Inc. in Santa Fe Springs, picked up a world map and a small vase and asked the price.

“Two dollars,” he was told.

Lopez handed over two $100 bills.

“I have a sister going through chemo, and a sister who died last year of cystic fibrosis,” said Lopez, who lives in San Marino. “I can’t imagine what the bills would be like without health insurance.”

By the end of the weekend, Dr. John Thropay of Beverly Hills Radiation Oncology offered a free MRI, and Mary Alice McLoughlin of the Cancer Support Foundation was offering advice to the Tamayo family.

“There are many people out there who are falling through the cracks due to a cancer diagnosis, and it could happen to anyone,” McLoughlin told me.

“Have her come to the emergency room and be evaluated,” Sandy Correia, a nurse at County-USC Medical Center, wrote to me in an e-mail. “Yes, there are long lines ... but this is to be expected when our patient population is using the ER as their primary caregiver.”

Donations poured into the Tamayo family from the Stella Adler Theatre, Rawhide Stables & Ponies, and Mount St. Mary’s College. Food was donated by Petrillo’s Italian Restaurant, Diner on Main and Teresita’s Family Restaurant.

When I asked Sen. Cedillo why he dropped by the yard sale, he told me about his wife, Ruby Olivia Cedillo, who fought breast cancer and a brain tumor for three years. She died on June 10, 2002, but she is still his conscience, Cedillo said.

“She told me to go over there and help that lady, like people helped us. We were both unemployed and uninsured when she first got the cancer.”

Cedillo said his office was trying to get Marina Tamayo medical attention as soon as possible, but the details hadn’t been worked out as of Tuesday.

The sick and injured can always use county hospitals and hope for coverage from Medi-Cal. But services are shrinking as the ranks of the uninsured grow, and specialty care, like cancer treatment, is not easy to come by. Then there’s a growing class of people who make too much money for Medi-Cal but not enough to buy private insurance.

Still, whatever bureaucratic and medical ordeals await them, the Tamayos were lifted and humbled by the unexpected waves of generosity and support.

“It’s restored our faith in Thanksgiving,” said Hortensia Tamayo, who organized the yard sale with help from family friends Laura Gutierrez, Christian Farrias and Richard Barragon.

Marina wrote the following thank you:

“I have never experienced such an outpouring of love, of connection with other cancer patients, cancer survivors and people who had other major illnesses.... Blessings on you all.”

She said she was now even more deeply resolved to do whatever she could to speak out for healthcare reform.

So, too, is state Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge), a physician. On Sunday, I’ll tell you about Richman’s healthcare reform idea, which would take yard sales out of the cancer patient’s recovery regimen.