Fighting cancer with Bingo

With reporting by Chris La Pelusa

In 1999, Marianne Ricciardi’s son, Pat, was diagnosed with a serious and rare form of pediatric bone cancer, Ewing’s sarcoma, right after his 22 birthday. Given only a 35% chance of survival, Pat and his family consulted all the leading specialists. When they finally performed surgery, Pat’s tumor was the size of a cantaloupe.

Marianne scoured the internet for information and treatments to help Pat. “I had been doing some research, and there’s this website called cureourchildren.org, started by a gentleman to help people with Ewing’s sarcoma because his son was stricken with it.”

The informative site told Marianne everything from the leading specialists in the world to where to get a wig or find free plane flights or discounts for the travel they would have to do for treatment.

Marianne, a licensed nurse practitioner, now retired, says, “On there, I found a book to read on how to boost the immune system through supplements, which really makes a lot of sense because chemo is toxic and doesn’t just hit the cancer cells.”

Because of the research Marianne did and the supplements and healthful diet she fed her son, Pat lived 4 years.

“Doctors said they didn’t really know anybody that survived highly toxic chemo drugs continuously for four years,” says Marianne.

In those four years, Marianne says Pat “still had an unbelievable quality of life. He was playing football up until eleven months beforehand, and then he fracture his arm playing…you’d never know by looking at him he had cancer.”

Pat also got the opportunity to email with Lance Armstrong, who had prostate cancer, and a television personality, Robert Urich, who had Ewing’s sarcoma. “It’s like a whole little community,” says Marianne. “It’s amazing. Once people who are sick see other people who are sick, it’s a tight little community.”

But on the medical side, “every treatment failed with him.”

It was a year and a half before Pat died when Marianne knew she was going to start a charity. “The thought of the charity started when we were in line…for stem-cell transplant,” she says.

Stem-cell treatment was still in stage one of clinical trials at the time, and because of Pat’s advanced progression of cancer, which had spread to other areas in his body, the doctors said they would not let Pat into the trial.

“I was absolutely livid,” recalls Marianne. “I thought, you have something that could help my son, and you won’t let him in….”

The doctor explained that they were government-funded and that if they did not choose the best candidates, they’d lose funding.

“Because it was a pediatric disease, Pat was treated on the pediatric wards and could see children months’ old up to his age,” says Marianne. When Pat heard the doctor’s explanation of why he would not be allowed to participate in the trials, Marianne says, “My son turned to me, and he put his hand on my leg, and he said, ‘Mama, if I have to take a pass so these other kids could have a break, then that’s what I’ve got to do. God gave me this for a reason, mom, but you have to promise me that you will help these other kids just like you are helping me.’”

“So that’s where the promise started,” says Marianne.

It was four years after her son died that People Magazine had on its cover the first survivor of stem-cell transplant for Ewing’s sarcoma.

“He never complained,” says Marianne. “He never…complained of any pain, never complained of ‘Why me?’ … He didn’t want cancer to be the focus of his life. He wanted to be out with his friends and with his family as much as possible.”

Marianne does not know how her son had the fortitude and made peace with his disease, but she saw firsthand the graciousness and kindness he had for others afflicted. “He was always helping the other little kids,” she says. “He’d color with them and draw…. He once put all his stuff in a garage sale and bought toys and puzzles and Nintendo games for the kids.”

After Pat passed away in 2002, Marianne kept her promise and started the charity.

During her son’s illness, she lived firsthand the hardships of being a single, working mother and having to continually take time off work for treatments. Driving downtown to Rush Memorial Hospital and sleeping in the waiting-room chairs overnight for the course of a five-day treatment was a regular occurance. “And if blood counts were too low, they’d not be able to do treatment and would ask us to come back,” says Marianne. Yet some other mothers couldn’t afford to take another day off work. Marianne got the idea to help with “Have a mom take a day off work,” which would provide an income for the day so that a mother could afford to take another day off.

“Through cureourchildren.org…they one time helped my family pay the mortgage, gas bill, and groceries,” says Marianne. And Marianne wants to help others in the same way.

Three-and-a-half years ago, she started a Bingo, proceeds from which go toward helping families afflicted with Ewing’s sarcoma. “I send the money to the families. At Christmastime, we do a special thing. What I do is buy toys, games, and take them down to Rush [Memorial hospital]. We give gift certificates for Dominicks or Jewel [for families],” Marianne says.

Currently, Marianne’s charity is partnered with Chicago Thunder Football Club because you must meet stringent guidelines to have a bingo license or else it is considered illegal gambling. But in May, they will be a “five-year charity,” which will allow them to get their own license.

“We’ve lowered our prices and are competitive with other big places,” says Marianne.

Located at the American Legion in Huntley, Bingo is held every Monday night from 7:00-9:30 or 9:45 p.m.

For less than dinner or a movie, you can enjoy a night of fun and a chance to win $1500 of prizes.

“It’s $20 to play, and you get 100 cards,” says Marianne.

And for an entire evening of fun, “free dinner and dessert nights” are held once a month. The next scheduled free dinner night is April 18th.

To find out more information, you can go to the new website, huntleybingo.com or call the American Legion in Huntley.

Ultimately, Marianne’s hopes are to raise money to help other families and contribute to research.

“The prognosis, the survival rate, is still the same as when my son was diagnosed…. Less than one cent of every dime goes to Ewing’s sarcoma research [according to the American Cancer Association],” says Marianne.

“These are innocent children. They [doctors] don’t know enough about it to know what causes it [Ewing’s sarcoma]. They don’t have anything new to fight this disease. Ultimately…I want to raise awareness through the website…. I want to be able to put that money toward Ewing’s sarcoma research and help other single moms going through the same thing.”

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