In December of 2006, Will Tarantino, a 23 year old graduate student at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, returned home to Monterey Bay for the holidays, looking forward to spending time with family and friends. During the course of a ten mile run, Will contracted a severe case of Poison Oak. Several days later, on January 5th, 2007, he went to Doctors on Duty to get treatment for the rash. At Doctors on Duty he received a steroid shot to ease the rash. He passed out after the shot, fell, and hit his head. Because he had been unconscious for about a minute, he was rushed to the Community Hospital of Monterey Bay (CHOMP). After his parents arrived, the doctor decided to do a CT scan to assure he had no swelling or bleeding on his brain. While the CT scan show no bleeding or swelling, it revealed an avocado sized tumor in his brain. The biopsy diagnosed it as a Malignant Glioma, a rare yet fatal form of cancer in the general population.
Two weeks later Will had brain surgery at UCSF, the surgery lasted nine hours. This was a scary time for the Tarantino family. They interviewed several different surgeons and chose Dr. Michael McDermott at UCSF, because he was the most detailed and straightforward. Later Dr. McDermott explained that he had to take his time carving around some veins and arteries that the tumor had enveloped. The first few days after the surgery, due to brain swelling, Will slowly lost the ability to move his left side. Fortunately, this was only a temporary problem. By the third day after the surgery, his abilities slowly returned. His mother still remembers laughing gleefully when he could once again move his left arm over his head.
That first week home was difficult because Will suffered severe headaches as a result of the brain swelling. He walked around the house balancing his head gingerly. A week after Will returned home, the tumor was determined to be malignant, so Will and his family opted for intensive chemotherapy and radiation to destroy any lingering cancer cells. The efficacy of chemotherapy and radiation is dependent, among other things, with how soon it is performed after surgery, so Will knew he needed to get started as soon as possible.
First, the Tarantinos had to overcome a few obstacles. They had to find a good local radiation oncologist and standard oncologist, quickly. They wanted to make sure that they had a radiation oncologist who would be able to kill as many cancer cells as possible with the least amount of side effects. Fortunately, Dr. Rick Rosenthal, a family friend who was fighting colon cancer, recommended a great team, Dr Brad Tamler, for the radiation oncologist and Dr. Shiffman for the supporting oncologist. Later the Tarantinos would discover how lucky they were to have Rick’s recommendation. At the time Mrs. Tarantino had been making phone call after phone call trying to obtain the records from UCSF, trying to get an appointment at CHOMP, and having to wait days for return calls. It had been a horrible week. The next morning, Mrs. Tarantino called Dr. Tamler’s staff, carefully explaining her situation. He, personally, called back within 30 minutes. He told her he was booked all month, but he’d move some appointments around and see Will on Monday, when Mrs. Tarantino asked about the medical records and contacting Dr. Shiffman, Dr Tamler said, “Don’t worry.I’ll take care of all that you just be here Monday.” Mrs. Tarantino hung up the phone and cried with relief.
The appointment with Dr. Tamler went well, and it was decided that the radiation treatment would start the next week. They ordered the chemotherapy drug, Temador, which took a few days to arrive. It was finally available to pick-up late Friday afternoon. When Will and his Mom went to get the Temador, the pharmacy informed them that the insurance company refused to pay for the drugs and that the bill was $10,000. This included both the Temador and the anti-nausea drug Kytril. Will and his Mom told them to hold it until Monday, the soonest they could contact the insurance company because the costumer service line is closed over the weekend. As it turns out, because Temodar is taken orally as a pill, the insurance company refused to cover it by classifying it as a prescription drug instead of chemotherapy. They cover chemotherapy, but were using this loophole to avoid paying for the newer drugs that do not need to be administered intravenously. Will didn’t have time to wait so he bought enough Temador to last three days ($750 worth), while Dr. Shiffman’s office and Dr. Tamler worked diligently to get the makers of Kytrel and Temador to offer the drugs to Will for free through charity. Will, being a graduate student, could not afford the drugs otherwise. The price for the thirteen months of drugs that he needed was $130,000. Dr. Tamler spent 45 minutes of his personal time talking to Schering Plough’s Commitment to Care charity to assure that Will’s application process was expedited so that Will could get the Temador on time. The Tarantino’s are forever grateful to these two tireless, caring doctors and their staffs as well as Commitment to Care for the services that they provided.
This is when Will’s story becomes one of courage and perseverance, despite overpowering odds. During radiation and chemotherapy treatment, Will began to run and train for the Big Sur Marathon. His parents will never forget the day he told them that he was going to train for the marathon – it was a month after surgery. The first day he could actually run again, he ran slowly and carefully to avoid damaging his healing brain. He carefully increased his distance and time until two months after the surgery he ran The Mud Run in Monterey and placed first. Will’s brother and Mom were shocked and overwhelmed when they saw him appear in the distance at the finish, no one was close on his heals. Then a month later in April, only three short months after surgery, Will placed 7th overall in the Big Sur Marathon with a time of 2:45.08. Since then, Will continued to train rigorously and completed the Boston Marathon a year later (placing 49th overall with a time of 2:29:30) while still on chemotherapy. He has since run the California International Marathon (placing 13th overall with a time of 2:26.08), the 2009 London Marathon (57th in 2:30:25) and the 2010 Eugene Marathon (14th in 2:34:11).
While training for the Boston Marathon, Will continued a regime of chemotherapy under the guidance of Susan Chang and Raymond Liu at the University of California at San Francisco. The Tarantino family is thankful for their considerate and knowledgeable care. Raymond Liu has since moved on to another medical facility; Will is still working with Susan Chang, how oversees his regularly scheduled MRIs.
Before his diagnosis, Will was an honors graduate of William and Mary College, where he obtained a double major in Physics and Biology. During his four years at William and Mary, Will ran both indoor and outdoor track, in addition to hiking and running recreationally. During his summers, Will completed the Triple Crown, consisting of the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail. While hiking the Pacific Crest, Will demonstrated his perseverance. He contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, but this didn’t stop him. After a couple of days resting and taking antibiotics, Will completing the remainder of the hike. During the Appalachian Trail, Will hiked very fast averaging around 30 miles a day, he would pass other hikers who wanted to send message to other hikers ahead of them on the trail. They would hand the notes to Will so he could pass them on to their fellow hikers once he caught up to them, this earned him the nickname of “Pony Express.” You can read about most of Pony Express’s adventures at the Pony Express Hiker Journal Page.
After college, Will began working on his PhD at Virginia Institute of Marine Science where he was awarded an NSF fellowship grant of $100,000 to complete his attempt to model dynamic food webs. He was diagnosed during his second year of graduate school. While a significant disruption to his young life, cancer has not stopped Will from enjoying each day and his passions. Will has completed his Master’s Degree and currently works at Mammoth Lakes as a ski patrolman while researching Malignant Glioma treatment options and training for his next race. In the summers Will is an instuctor for NOLS, one of the premier outdoor education companies in the Wolrd. He is considering returning to school to complete a PhD. Will would also like to use his abilities to help raise funds for brain cancer research and to help young people who have difficulties acquiring adequate treatment due to insurance gaps.
In addition to general donations for the research of Malignant Glioma, Will Power Research Fund offers the opportunity to support research efforts through sponsorships of particular races and ultradistance hikes. For more information on sponsorship, please contact us at contact-wprf@willpowerresearchfund.com |
