Jason Gaes

Jason Gaes and his mother and father appeared in the film "You Don't Have to Die."
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Gaes can be reached at 245-4768, jason gaes@yahoo.com or 214 Clydesdale Trace, Louisville, KY 40223.
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Gaes, now 26, survived a rare form of childhood cancer and wrote an internationally published book about his experience that was adapted into an Oscar-winning HBO documentary called "You Don't Have to Die."

He used his own survival to give children with cancer hope that they can live, speaking at cancer camps and conventions nationwide.He met Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.He appeared in Time, Life, People and Newsweek and on "Today," "Good Morning America" and "World News Tonight."

Eight years ago, he moved to Jeffersontown.He is a student at the University of Louisville, aiming perhaps for a health-care career that would let him help patients like himself.Not many people he encounters in his daily life know about his past.He said he never broadcast it.Cancer was behind him.

In October, however, Gaes was diagnosed with cancer again, this time a brain tumor.And this time, he's not covered by his parents' insurance, and he can't afford coverage of his own.This time, his life will depend on the generosity of Louisville.

His family and friends are preparing a benefit concert for May 29 at Headliners Music Hall, hoping to raise more than $50,000.

It's hard to say what Jason's chances are.He has an "aggressive" tumor on the lining of his brain, said his physician, Dr. Mike Link, a consultant in neurologic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "It's one of those things where time is going to answer that a lot better than I can."

Gaes intends to be a survivor."He doesn't have the `poor me' attitude at all," Link said.According to the odds offered the first time he had cancer, Gaes shouldn't have lived much longer than June 28, 1984.He was 6 years old then and living in Worthington, Minn., but that day he was visiting relatives in Storm Lake, Iowa.

He and his uncle were playing with a flashlight, looking into each other's mouths.

"That's where he saw the bump," Gaes said.
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When Jason awoke from the oral surgery, it was his stomach, not his mouth, that was killing him.The surgeon felt a golf-ball size tumor in his abdomen.
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Jason had Burkitt's lymphoma, a usually fatal affliction more common in tropical regions of Africa than in this country.He was poked and prodded every two weeks for two years, undergoing surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
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"My Book for kids with cansur" - the spelling and capitalization are young Jason's - was attached to the party invitations.

The party was more of a success than he had dreamed.
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Jason Gaes' next appointment at Mayo is in June, almost 20 years to the day after he was first diagnosed with cancer.
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Asked about the uncertain odds, Jason Gaes shrugged and adjusted the eye patch he has to wear because his left eye still goes its own way as a result of the brain tumor.He's spent almost his entire life defeating cancer or talking about it.What's another round?

"We've always battled all these odds," he said.