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Friday, August 31, 2012
Volume 8 • Issue No. 35
York Family’s Inspirational Story Becomes National News By Pat Sommers Staff Columnist YORK – Sharon and Michael Durkin felt as if they were living a bad dream in 2006 when son Jason, then 18, was diagnosed with a rare disorder that affects the blood and bone marrow. That bad dream became a recurring nightmare for the York parents. Doctors subsequently discovered that their younger son, Chris, was suffering from the same condition, myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS. He was 15. Then, in 2009, daughter Lauren, now a senior at York High School, received the same
Chris, Lauren, and Jason Durkin (photo courtesy the Durkin Family & ABC News)
diagnosis. The story of the York family’s courage in coping with the
potentially life-threatening illness was spotlighted this week on ABC’s “Good Morning
Thornton Academy Extends Global Reach to 16 Countries Recent Graduate Starts Life at an American College SACO – Thornton Academy, in the fourth year of its foreign outreach program, has seen a steady increase in the number of participants, as well as the involve-
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ment of several countries from all over Europe, Asia, and Latin America. In fact, Mark Powers, director of admissions, is so busy flying around the world on recruiting trips that TA has added an admissions associate to help with the workload. Thornton just hired Abigail Swardlick, who will be “helping out to expand our reach worldwide,” said Powers. “Her first trip is to Latin America this fall.” The program, which started with forty students, has
grown each year. “There will be 136 students (this year) on campus in our dorms or in our Homestay program,” Powers said this week. “They hail from sixteen countries, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Spain, and Brazil.” Powers’ job requires him to fly around world, learning about other cultures and sharing the See GLOBAL page 38...
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Teddy Laing with new roommate, John, at Florida Southern College. Laing was a Thornton Academy Homestay student, who lived with the Trues of Saco for two years. (courtesy photo)
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America” television program. Robin Roberts, an anchor for the popular morning show who successfully battled breast cancer five years ago, announced recently that she has MDS. The disorder, she said, was triggered by her cancer treatment. In MDS, the blood marrow does not make enough normal blood cells for the body. Red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets may all be affected, and the course of the disease is different for each of the 10,000 to 15,000 Americans who are diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes annually. Though MDS can affect people of any age, at least 80 per-
cent of all cases occur in people over 60, making the case of the Durkin siblings more startling. The disorder is more common in men than women. In reporting on Roberts’ diagnosis and the upcoming bone marrow transplant that will be part of her treatment for MDS, ABC noted the extreme rarity of the genetic form of the disorder for which Jason, Chris, and Lauren were treated. According to Dr. Inga Hofmann of Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center, the Boston facility where the Durkin children received treatment, only about 4 in 1 million See DURKIN page 6...
Retired Doctor Hikes Entire Appalachian Trail
Nathan Gagnon met his father, David, at the end of his long journey (courtesy photo)
By Timothy Gillis Staff Columnist SOUTH BERWICK – David Gagnon, a retired family doctor who lives in South Berwick, recently completed a very long journey. He hiked all 2,184 miles of the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine. He completed the trek in five months, staying at hostels and shelters and camping along the way. His travels were inspired by a gift from his daughter, Nicole, last year, and when giving it to him, she probably had little inclination her present would expand exponentially. “My daughter got me a stay
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on Mount Washington for Father’s Day a year ago,” Gagnon said from his home this week, recuperating and planning his next voyage. “I hiked thirteen miles and felt pretty good, so that planted the seed that I’m not over the hill yet.” Gagnon’s Mount Washington experience solidified his resolve to take the longer trip, so he made plans and departed this past March. He took the “midnight train to Georgia,” said Susan Gagnon, his wife. He rode the Crescent Line, from Boston to New York to Philadelphia, and then on to Gainesville, See HIKE page 29...
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