Orion Fund Aids College Students with Major Health Challenges

 The Orion Fund, a Piedmont-based non-profit 501©3 charity established in 2004 in memory of the late Orion Trott, has announced grants to four University of California at Berkeley students facing serious health challenges.

Orion Trott was a Piedmont High graduate and U.C. San Diego student who died from brain cancer at the age of 21.

“The Orion Fund is proud to have aided these students in pursuing their education,” said Shelley M. Tarnoff, president of the board of the Orion Fund. The following accounts came from Tarnoff: 

Paula

On March 12, 2010, Paula was a Berkeley junior, taking a full course load, serving as vice president of the Cal Democrats, and working two jobs to help herself and her mom make ends meet. But that day when her lower back pain was diagnosed as Ewing’s sarcoma, and Paula’s doctor gave her a 15 percent survival chance, Paula didn’t allow that prognosis to prevent her from taking a proactive approach to dealing with her health, education, and finances. Before she began an aggressive chemotherapy regimen, she and her friends made a party out of giving her progressively shorter haircuts, from a mullet to a bowl cut, until they reached a buzz cut.

“We had a blast,” Paula said. “Now I know I can rock just about any haircut.”

Thanks to sympathetic professors, she scheduled her finals around her chemotherapy, and her class schedule around radiation treatments. A grant from The Orion Fund helped her manage the debt burden her treatments incurred. “The grant was pretty much a lifesaver,” she said. “It helped me make minimum payments on hospital bills for a while.” 

Paula knows the hospital bills will be with her for the foreseeable future, but dealing with the financial burden, in her mind, is small change compared to beating cancer. Paula’s priority is building a career while taking care of her health. Her post-college plans are no less lofty than the odds she overcame to beat Ewing’s. She plans to apply her public service talents to either a position working as a legislative aide to an assemblyman in Sacramento or getting involved with the re-election efforts for President Obama. The future is both “terrifying and exciting.” She is optimistic about keeping her cancer in remission as she builds her career in public service and politics.

As she looks to the future, though, Paula recognizes that not all patients with Ewing’s sarcoma are as fortunate. Since following her friends’ study-abroad and travel blogs was one of her greatest sources of enjoyment while sick, Paula has begun Postcards for Donna, a program in which people send postcards from around the world to a terminally ill patient with Ewing’s. What began as an effort among her friends has expanded as far as Tokyo, where Paula has no personal connections. That kind of goodwill — from friends, loved ones, and even strangers — is Paula’s greatest takeaway from her battle with cancer. “Don’t be afraid to rely on the people who love you and, even if you’re given pretty bad odds, don’t give up without a fight. You never know how things could turn out,” she said.

Kaitlin

Keeping up the fight has been a lifelong approach for Kaitlin, who was born with a congenital heart defect and underwent four open-heart surgeries before coming to UC Berkeley. Despite her extensive hospital experiences, her fifth emergency surgery due to an undiagnosed heart infection in February 2009 nonetheless came as a shock. Another undiagnosed condition resulted in yet another operation in May 2009, this time to address a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. The two emergency surgeries were the culmination of a long period during which Kaitlin’s health was rapidly declining, but her doctors were unable to find the cause. The experience, Kaitlin says, taught her indelible lessons about being her own advocate, even when symptoms mystify teams of doctors.

Kaitlin withdrew from school in order to recover from her two emergency surgeries, and found herself dealing with debilitating emotional aftershocks from her time in the hospital. Working through the anxiety from her hospital experiences left her uncertain about her ability to live independently, but Kaitlin summoned the resolve to return to school in August 2009. “I went back to school because I had to see and prove to myself that I could function in the world again post-endocarditis, post-cerebral aneurysm and post–intense hospital trauma,” she said.

Kaitlin did succeed, but her progress met with yet another challenge in 2010 when her father’s health suddenly declined, leaving her family without a source of income. The financial instability prompted her to apply for a grant from The Orion Fund, which replaced the money she once made from a work-study job on campus. Not having to work allows her to focus on school and time to take care of herself.

“I have to make sure to take good care of myself in ways most college students can get away with not being as diligent about,” Kaitlin said.

In addition to regular acupuncture, plenty of sleep and taking her vitamins, focusing on schoolwork is one way that Kaitlin stays healthy. Her interdisciplinary studies major allows her to draw from classes in medical anthropology, history of medicine and disability studies. “I realized how therapeutic it was for me to write about social aspects and effects of medicine, so I decided to design my own major to allow myself to be able to do that,” she said. She plans to either pursue graduate studies in medical anthropology or acupuncture school, with the goal of helping others the way acupuncturists have helped her.

Wilson

Recent UC Berkeley graduate Wilson shares Kaitlin’s interest in helping others improve their health. His own hospital experiences reinforced for him how essential health is to happiness and solidified his desire to attend medical school. His life took a major turn in the fall of 2008, when his mother forced him to go to the emergency room for a headache that had persisted for two or three weeks. Wilson’s seemingly benign symptoms — he had assumed stress was to blame for the headache — resulted in a life-altering diagnosis. A rare brain tumor was responsible for the continuous and escalating pain.

“I pretty much owe my mom my life,” Wilson says. 

Though the tumor itself was benign, removal meant a major surgery with major risks. Wilson withdrew from school to focus on his recovery, and found himself drowning in hospital bills. With the original total hovering in six digits, Wilson had to rely on help from friends and relatives to make minimum payments, until insurance and a grant from The Orion Fund stepped in to help. The grant, he said, “helped speed up my recovery process. It definitely helped with the stress, and helped me get back into study mode.” Previously Wilson simply didn’t have the stamina to last through three or four classes per day, as he had before his surgery. Not worrying about his financial situation enabled him to pour more energy into building up strength and getting back into an academic state of mind.

His efforts paid off, too. Wilson earned a public health degree in December 2010, and he’s preparing for the MCAT and medical school applications. The ordeal not only confirmed his goal of becoming a doctor, but also shaped his outlook on his chosen profession. The experience “made me realize how fragile life could be, and that health is of top importance because it affects not only me, but also family and friends who care about me,” he said. As a doctor, Wilson hopes to help his patients, and their loved ones, live happier, healthier lives.

Billy

Billy also learned from experience the power of the link between health and happiness. Billy is a graduate student in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at UC Berkeley. But his research, developing nano-lasers that could lead to the development of faster, more efficient microprocessors, was abruptly interrupted when, only three months after moving to the U.S. from Hong Kong, he was the victim of an unprovoked, violent attack outside of a high school basketball game. Billy was walking home from the BART station when two young men suddenly attacked him, then fled the scene. The affront not only caused multiple bodily injuries, but also shattered his glasses, resulting in devastating damage to his right eye. Numerous operations and plastic surgeries left him with minimal vision in his right eye.

When Billy, who subsists on a graduate student stipend, found himself unable to pay his medical bills, a social worker at UC Berkeley’s Tang Center encouraged him to apply for a grant from The Orion Fund, which helped him pay off part of the hospital fees, and lightened the financial burden on his family. Between his grant and remuneration from the California Victim Compensation Program, Billy is far less stressed about his medical debts than before. The experience has encouraged him to save his money even more carefully than he had before.

He manages to see the bright side: Though the surgeries were painful, Billy found it enjoyable to take some sanctioned time off. “The pressure is pretty high in grad school, so surgery gave me the license to take some days off,” he said.

He appreciated his sister and mom traveling from Hong Kong to help take care of him, and found that he could rely on his friends for support. “I have very good friends here. They cooked for me and stayed with me in shifts, to see if I had any complications.”

Though his case is still cold, Billy harbors little resentment. He admits that one-eyed vision makes aspects of his work more difficult, but he has learned to ask his team for help when needed, and he makes sure to walk in groups of people at night. “Nobody’s life is perfect,” he says, “but even with some imperfections, it’s very important to stay alive and live with it, because there are still good things in the world you have yet to experience. Don’t let one single bad thing keep you from enjoying the good things.” 

Each year the Orion Fund awards grants to California college students with serious illness or injury. If you are in college, under the age of 30, and have a serious medical condition affecting your ability to stay in school, then The Orion Fund can help. Grants generally range from $300 to $3,000. The deadline for the current round is April 15.