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A MESSAGE FROM SCOTT'S WIFE CHRISTIE
Dear family and friends,
I want to thank all of you who have actively followed Scott's journey to bone marrow transplant the last 6 months. It is with great sadness that I must tell you that he did not make it. Scott passed away peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones on Thursday April 29, 2004 at 1:30pm. Scott openly and honestly chronicled his fight against leukemia on this website. And you religiously followed his progress. You were able to share the few victories and the many setbacks. He was so resilient. You witnessed Scott's positive attitude, courage, drive and determination. I am so proud to be his wife and to have been at his side. His decision to come home to die was an amazing gift that he gave to the kids and me. He was incredibly brave and dignified in the face of death, fully accepting his fate and God's will. Thank you for all of your encouragement, support and prayers. They meant so much to Scott. The only thing that keeps me going is is my faith. It brings me tremendous comfort knowing for certain that Scott is in heaven with God. His suffering is over and he has gotten his just reward.
The following obituary notice will appear in the Sunday May 9, 2004 San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco Chronicle along with the picture below. All are invited to attend the Memorial Service and Reception on Saturday May 22, 2004. See below for details.
MARTIN, Scott Allen - Scott passed away peacefully at
his home in Redwood City, surrounded by loved ones, on
April 29, after a long and courageous battle with
leukemia. The family man, entrepreneur, avid cyclist,
and philanthropist was 46.
He is survived by his wife of 10 years, Christie, his
5-year-old son Jack, his 3-year-old daughter Hannah.
He is also survived by his mother Sandra Martin, his
father Mervin Martin, his brother Brett Martin, his
grandparents Charles & Evelyn Heitshu and his
grandfather Allen Martin who all reside in the
Lancaster, PA area. Scott was a devoted family man
who strove to keep life for his family as normal as
possible in spite of his illness. He took great joy
in coaching his son’s soccer and t-ball teams.
Scott was born and raised in Lancaster, PA. He joined
the Air Force in 1975 and was stationed in Honolulu.
Scott went on to graduate from the University of
Delaware and then embarked on a 20-plus-year career in
the software industry. His various jobs took him to
Wilmington, Chicago, Brussels and Minneapolis before
bringing him to the Bay Area in 1996. He was involved
in five start-up operations. He held executive
positions at Software 2000 (Infinium Software), SAP,
and CrossWorlds Software (IBM) before taking on the
role of President and CEO of diCarta, Inc. of Redwood
City. Most recently Scott was President and CEO of
Determine Software in San Francisco. Scott was
admired by employees, customers, and partners alike
for his entrepreneurial spirit, unwavering drive,
determination and commitment.
Scott was an avid cyclist and an active participant in
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training
program since 2000. During those years he completed
numerous century bike rides. Ironically, it was at
the height of his involvement with Team In Training,
in February of 2002, that Scott discovered he had AML,
an aggressive form of leukemia. After his diagnosis
Scott continued to participate in Team in Training
events as an honoree, providing motivation and
inspiration to hundreds of cyclists striving to meet
their fundraising and training goals.
Like his hero, Lance Armstrong, Scott kept up his
cycling throughout his illness. He even had an
exercise bike in his hospital room. He divided his
room into two parts, keeping half of it as a working
office where he would interview prospective employees
and raise venture capital while he endured
chemotherapy treatments. He applied the
unconventional and creative principles of start-ups to
his illness, his treatment and his fundraising.
Scott was a relentless leader and advocate for cancer
research. He was very involved with the Lance
Armstrong Foundation and Cyclists Combating Cancer,
participating in the Ride for the Roses in Austin,
Texas in October 2003. He reached out to other
patients and somehow found the strength to be most
inspirational when he was feeling his worst. Scott’s
positive attitude, bravery and drive to overcome
cancer touched the staff at Stanford Medical Center
deeply. His approach to life inspired great hope in
everyone around him.
The family would like to thank the dedicated doctors
and nurses at Stanford Medical Center for their
outstanding care and steadfast support.
Friends are invited to attend a Memorial Service
Saturday, May 22, 2004 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Matthias
Catholic Church, 1685 Cordilleras Road, Redwood City,
CA. A Reception will be held immediately following
the Memorial Service at Peninsula Covenant Church,
3560 Farm Hill Blvd., Redwood City, CA.
The family respectfully requests that donations be
made to the Scott A. Martin Memorial Research Fund.
Please contact The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at
415-625-1108 or The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Northern California Division 1390 Market Street, Suite
1200, San Francisco, CA 94102-5306.
WOODSIDE CHAPEL OF CRIPPEN & FLYNN
(650) 369-4103
SCOTT'S LAST POSTING 4/24/2004
Day 26 of this round of chemo and infection fighting we received some devastating news. We had been so hopeful after the news on April 15th that my bone marrow was clean. Eventhough the infections had the doctors stumped, the drugs seemed to be containing the spread. They continued to monitor the status of my lungs, heart, kidney, liver with various tests. Thursday evening April 22 after another CT scan, the doctors delivered the news that no cancer patient wants to hear. If I am going to qualify for a transplant I first will need major surgury of my lungs, I need to make some tough decicisions about my treatment alternatives over the coming days. We decided the risks of this surgury versus being home with the kids and being at home, and chose being at home. We decided it was time for me to be home with them. I have had incredible support from Christie, my Mom, the kids, TNT, CCC and others, Thanks to the TNT Team that came in on Tuesday to give me the big poster for my room.
CURRENT DATA:
I started my second battle against leukemia with a chemo round on December 26th, 2003. Unfortunately, this chemo round did not get me into remission, the biopsy we did on Feb. 5th, 2004 showed the leukemia was
still present. We can't do the transplant while leukemia is present, so I tried a round of treatments with Myelotarg to see if that could get me at least into temporary remission in order to be able to move forward. I started this treatment on Friday, Feb. 20th (and it was a rough 24 hours complete with the rigors and high fevers). In addition to being fatiqued, I had to be hospitalized with an e-Coli infection and other infections since Friday, Feb 28. I was on Morphine, Vicoden, Demerol, etc to control the pain - and have been given a whole litany of IV antibiotics. They put a scope down my throat and installed a stint between my gall bladder and my liver, and continue to try to find a successful diagnosis. I found out on March 5th that the Myelotarg has not worked to slow down my leukemia either. Then I had a seizure caused by bleeding on my head - that is from when I bumped my head on Feb. 11th. The seizure was at Jack's T-Ball practice, which was pretty scary, but I am doing well now. We then tried a 5 Day chemo regimen, which I started on Tuesday the 16th of March. The chemo process went well, but....I found out that I did not get into remission with this round either. So I have been back into the hospital for another attempt with a different chemo regimen, that we started Monday March 29th. This cocktail requires 8 days, right now I am at day 5. We are praying that this is the one that works. Christie has just been incredible through all of this, especially with the kids and everything going on with them. Their is a picture below of her on our Napa Getaway the Weekend before I started the Myelotarg. And my Mom came out to join us on March 3rd to help, and along with Christie's brother Bill and all our friends and family bringing us dinner and providing support, we feel so grateful. As for the rest of the family, there is a lot going on. Jack has T-Ball and his pre-K school and friends to play with, which is keeping everyone busy keeping up with him. And right behind him Hannah is setting a strong pace. She is thriving in preschool, and has her own set of friends that she does play dates with. Both kids are doing really well, we are so proud of them. They are so loving and sweet, and have been very supportive of Dad - they are much more astute then they get credit for. Christie has been very active herself, with her church activities, kids activities, and now a pending decision on whether she should go back to work. We have tried hard to make live as normal as possible around the house, but some compromises will probably have to be made to our lifestyles soon. We made a decision in January to do use a clincal trial protocol for my transplant. I will be only the 6th patient at Stanford to use this protocol, so I am a little anxious about what lies ahead. Rather than use the matched unrelated donor we found, and a non-myeloblative transplant, we are going to use a half matched related donor with a natural killer cell alloreactivity and a non-myeloblative transplant regimen. I found a cousin who has this profile. We decided on this protocol because it has been shown to be more aggressive against the leukemia. My cousin will make 2 trips out here from the east coast as part of the process, once in early Feb. for tests and the second one is now on hold once again. It is expected that my recovery time will take somewhere between 6 - 9 months. This is because the radiation and ATG treatments wipe out my T-Cells, and these take a very long time to rebuild. During this recovery time, I will have to be extremely careful not to get infections while my immune system is compromised, and I will have to be on the lookout for graft versus host disease - a very real and potentially dangerous complication.
It is with great sadness that I learned of the passing of John Reid on January 29, 2004. John has been a great friend of mine since my college days in Delaware. The third or forth picture below is one with the two of us on his boat Cheers, docked in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. John fought a long battle with cancer, and had survived a liver transplant several years ago. Every time I see a Heineken, it will stir up fond memories of times with John.
We had a great golf outing Monday, January 26th for Lemonaide, the non-profit Scott is Trustee of, that he helped several Stanford Fellows (Doctors in Residency) set up in 2002. The golf outing is a result of these same docs that treated me, having treated Bobby Bonds with his cancer, and having gotten to know Barry Bonds as a result. So this was the first Annual Bobby Bonds Memorial Golf Outing, with Barry Bonds, Jim Plunkett, Raymond Chester, Shawon Dunston, and many more celebrities participating. It was an awesome event, that was topped off by Barry asking to golf with the patients participating - so I got to be in the foursome with Barry for the 4 1/2 hours our round of 18 holes took. We had a great time, he was a real blast to play with (and boy could he hit the ball a long, long way.)
THE STORY:
I'm not sure how many more trials and tribulations could possibly be in store for the Martin Family this year. We thought 2002 was the crossing of the coals, with Jack's operation, Scott's leukemia, Hannah in the hospital, Christie pushed to the brink with stress......it seemed as though 2003 just had to be better and brighter. And it was a good year. We had a great New Years, Scott's company came out of the gates doing awesome in 2003, Jack's operation was a HUGE success, and our lives settled into normal. The kids were both in preschool, Christie had a semblance of a normal live again, and Scott was busy working at DETERMINE and training for century bike rides. Jack signed up for soccer and Scott was able to coach the team, making for a special summer/fall for the boys. Scott did the Tahoe Century in June with the Leukemia Society, in record time for him, and other than low blood counts, was feeling great. Scott and Christie got away to Paris for a great week of watching Lance Armstrong win TdF number 5, and sightseeing. We had a blast eating our way through Paris and sightseeing, as well as meeting members of the Lance entourage. But as fate has it, more trials and tribulations came into the picture by the end of the year. First, we made the decision to have Jack go through additional treatments to remove excess iron from his system that had built up over the years of his transfusions - which he is now in the middle of doing once every 2 weeks for a 6-9 month period. That is going well for him, and we have learned that the iron counts are dropping. We will need to make sure they get to an acceptable level so that he doesn't have any long term damage. (Jack's last treatments on February 6th showed that he had rebounded great once again, and the treatments continue to work.) Then our families special trip to the Lance Armstrong weekend in Austin in October was tainted by Scott's knowledge that his leukemia was coming back - and too top it off, he got sick while there and had to fight through a short hospital stay in Austin. (Although Scott did make the private ride with Lance that he earned from his fundraising, as well as the autograph session). Then, upon returning from Austin, within weeks Scott and DETERMINE decided that it didn't make sense for him to try to continue as CEO and fight leukemia again, so he went on disability in order to focus on his health.
Between our Bone Marrow Drive in San Francisco on November 12th and one in Redwood City on December 18th, we've had 150+ people show up to be HLA typed. We also have had many friends and family get typed at locations across the country, which we really appreciate. Also, we did learn that at least one of our donors has been contacted as a match for a person in Europe in need of a transplant, and the transplant has been completed - so some goodness has come out of our donor drive for someone other than just myself.
Scott's Donor Drive gets write up in SF Business Times Link to the Story
My first bone marrow transplant was completed successfully in October 2002, and I was in complete remission - until a year later, October 2003. You can learn more about leukemia and transplants by visiting Leukemia Society Web Site
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