Tumor

There wasn't a big match to be played on Tuesday, but a member of the UC Irvine men's volleyball team remained nervous for an important event dealing with the Anteaters. If you were at the celebration ceremony to honor the UCI team's national championship you wouldn't notice he was a bit anxious. But you could understand his excitement. There he was, Kevin Freeman, in his No. 1 gold jersey standing with his teammates at UCI. It was a big day for him. "I was happy to be with everybody," Kevin said a day later.

Deepa Bharath COSTA MESA -- She was just a young girl who loved roses, butterflies, bright reds and rainbows. Brianna Olympius was Ms. Sunshine. And while a decade might seem like a long span of time to many, it was all Brianna had to live the life she loved, cherished and lived to the fullest. Brianna was chatting with her friends and laying with her mother right before she died peacefully Friday night from complications from a tumor that had woven itself into her brain stem.

Anthony Marco Perez, the fourth-grader at Adams Elementary School whose illness sparked a fundraising drive, died Wednesday at the age of 9. In November Marco, who usually went by his middle name, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. The school's PTA held a fundraiser Jan. 20 at Adams to raise money to help his family cover basic needs. Adams parent Suzanne Hughes organized the fundraiser and said it raised more than $17,000. A memorial service is planned for today at 11 a.m. at the Newport-Mesa Church at Fair Drive and Newport Boulevard.

Clutching a stuffed dog, 5-year-old Newport Beach resident Julian Dunn sat in the audience for part of a concert at Newport Mesa Church on Saturday as a parade of grade-school pianists, singers and guitar players took the stage to raise money to pay his medical bills. “We’re here today to celebrate Julian’s fire,” Julian’s father, Richard Dunn said, pausing for a second as he choked back the tears. “He’s the sweetest human being on the face of the earth.

Some four months after finishing his last round of chemotherapy, 6-year-old Julian Dunn has almost an inch of newly grown hair on his head. A year and a half after doctors found a golf-ball sized tumor in Julian’s brain, his parents say life is finally returning to normal at their Newport Beach household. The hearth in the Dunn’s living room is lined with Julian’s extensive collection of LEGO spaceships and cars. Julian would spend hours building with LEGOS while undergoing 55 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatments that left him weak and nauseous.

A few days ago, while waiting to meet someone, I wandered into a high-end boutique. Then I saw the dress. $200. And I fell in love. I tried to justify buying it, but knew there was no justification. See, I am a new mom. And any mom can tell you that they could drop $200 in record time with a few clicks of the mouse on www.diapers.com . But, oh, how I wanted that dress! The cute 20-something sales girl could see that I was conflicted. She tried her best to convince me that it was an investment.

She keeps playing. Not knowing what tomorrow brings, or what even today holds, she keeps playing. Golf is Debbie Albright’s game and she said it has helped her battle through the worst days of her life. The Newport Beach community has also greatly supported the 50-year-old, who has been dealing with an inoperable brain tumor for over the past year. Some grow frustrated hitting a small, white ball around a large course and following it around, yet somehow golf has brought peace for Albright, who won her 12th ladies championship at Newport Beach Country Club in May. But, golf is not really about winning for Albright, especially today when she will be playing in Newport Beach Country Club’s Seahorse Classic, the two-day member-guest tournament with her sister, Joanne Peacock, who is visiting from New Zealand.

Steve Virgen Passion does not come by chance. Passion is not a gift. Matt Doyle is the evidence. His life indicates loss breeds desire, the will to overcome. When doctors discovered a tumor the size of a cantaloupe that took up half of his left lung, Doyle prepared for a long and hilly road. The Newport Harbor High junior, who is on the Sailors' junior varsity cross country team, wondered if he would ever run again. Stunned, he wondered if he would ever breathe again.

Danette Goulet What was once a simple, daily chore for a 9-year-old girl has become Brianna Olympius' ultimate goal. "I really want to go back to school," said Brianna, wearing bright purple silk pajamas with her hair pulled back in two pigtails, exposing a four-inch row of stitches down the back of her skull. Just two weeks ago, the Newport Heights Elementary fourth-grader was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Although benign, the tumor had woven itself into her brain stem, disturbing her facial features and mobile skills and threatening her life.

There wasn't a big match to be played on Tuesday, but a member of the UC Irvine men's volleyball team remained nervous for an important event dealing with the Anteaters. If you were at the celebration ceremony to honor the UCI team's national championship you wouldn't notice he was a bit anxious. But you could understand his excitement. There he was, Kevin Freeman, in his No. 1 gold jersey standing with his teammates at UCI. It was a big day for him. "I was happy to be with everybody," Kevin said a day later.

On Tuesday, Corona del Mar High will play Edison at Orange Coast College in a nonleague boys' volleyball match that starts at 6 p.m. The event is far more important than a simple high school volleyball match. Coaches Steve Conti (CdM) and Brian Boone (Edison) have established the game as the McKenna Claire Challenge. All funds from the gate and the snack bar as well as donations will go to the McKenna Claire Foundation for Pediatric Brain Cancer. McKenna (Macky) Wetzel was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor Jan. 21, 2011.

Kelly Mitchell has plenty to celebrate this Mother's Day. Last year, as she celebrated her first Mother's Day as a mom, the Daily Pilot published her first-person account of a health scare that she endured during and after that pregnancy. Mitchell, 40, a former Newport-Mesa schoolteacher, was seven months pregnant in 2009 when headaches brought on by what she thought was "pregnancy brain" became unbearable. They got so bad that she could barely see or remember anything.

After more than a decade of affiliation, the Brain and Spine Surgeons of Orange County have joined the medical staff of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach at Hoag's new Neurosciences Institute. A private practice founded by Dr. Christopher M. Duma in 1997, the Brain and Spine Surgeons of Orange County will open its new offices on West Coast Highway in early September, according to a press release. Duma is a board-certified neurosurgeon who for the last 10 years has helped lead Hoag's brain tumor and gamma knife radiosurgery programs.

A few days ago, while waiting to meet someone, I wandered into a high-end boutique. Then I saw the dress. $200. And I fell in love. I tried to justify buying it, but knew there was no justification. See, I am a new mom. And any mom can tell you that they could drop $200 in record time with a few clicks of the mouse on www.diapers.com . But, oh, how I wanted that dress! The cute 20-something sales girl could see that I was conflicted. She tried her best to convince me that it was an investment.

Some four months after finishing his last round of chemotherapy, 6-year-old Julian Dunn has almost an inch of newly grown hair on his head. A year and a half after doctors found a golf-ball sized tumor in Julian’s brain, his parents say life is finally returning to normal at their Newport Beach household. The hearth in the Dunn’s living room is lined with Julian’s extensive collection of LEGO spaceships and cars. Julian would spend hours building with LEGOS while undergoing 55 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatments that left him weak and nauseous.

Christopher Duma’s goal is to modernize the treatment of neurological diseases. Duma, a neurosurgeon, is the medical director of the brain tumor and GammaKnife programs at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. He has developed a novel treatment using GammaKnife technology to “head off tumors at the pass,” he said. He patented the treatment, which he calls Leading Edge. “I treat the most brain tumors south of Los Angeles,” Duma said.

After work, Dr. Christopher Duma trades in his surgical instruments for musical ones. As front-man for the band Circle of Willis, his stage performances are music to the ears of his patients. Duma uses the band to raise money for the medical patients. Duma and his band mates (all of whom are doctors) will come to the aid of 14-year-old Austen Landaas, who suffers from a rare form of leukemia called acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). The benefit concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. July 31 at the Friends Sports Tavern, 31911 Dove Canyon Drive, Trabuco Canyon.

About two weeks ago, 71-year-old Gary Van Horn was an emotional wreck. His income — based almost solely on commission from his sales job and Social Security checks — had plummeted, like so many other things, due to the recession. A former pastor in Northern California, Van Horn worried daily about how he and his wife would pay the rent for their Costa Mesa home that month. They had to scrape by so much that they routinely had to set aside money just for rent, guaranteeing that if they could afford nothing else, they’d at least have a roof over their heads.

Clutching a stuffed dog, 5-year-old Newport Beach resident Julian Dunn sat in the audience for part of a concert at Newport Mesa Church on Saturday as a parade of grade-school pianists, singers and guitar players took the stage to raise money to pay his medical bills. “We’re here today to celebrate Julian’s fire,” Julian’s father, Richard Dunn said, pausing for a second as he choked back the tears. “He’s the sweetest human being on the face of the earth.