Looking at Patrick Sanger, a bright-eyed, smiling 2-year-old, one would never know he was at the hospital the day before receiving chemotherapy for his histiocytosis, a rare, potentially fatal blood disease affecting only five in a million people, mostly children.

A histiocyte is a form of white blood cell and is used by the body to fight off infections.- Patients with histiocytosis have too many of these histiocytes and they attack different organs of the body-as if they were a foreign object.-

Because of the low number of people affected by this disease there has been very little research done regarding it and scientists don’t even know what causes the disease, much less how to cure it.

This is why Patrick’s parents have spent the last ten months putting together A Night of Hope, a fundraiser that will be held at the Sacramento State Alumni Center on Saturday. Pam Sanger was a lecturer in the communications department at Sac State from 1998 until this spring when she had to give up her classes to take care of Patrick.

The fundraiser is expected to raise close to $40,000, the amount it costs to do one research project on histiocytosis, which will be donated to the Histiocytosis Association of America.

“When we took Patrick in to be treated the nurses would all come into Patrick’s room because they wanted to see what the disease looked like. None of them had ever seen it before,” Sanger said. “His pediatrician has only seen four cases in his 30 years of practice.”

Sanger said taking Patrick to Stanford for his treatments seems strange because all of the other children look so much sicker than he does.

“Going to the hospital is very humbling because no matter how bad we have it, there are so many children who are suffering through much worse,” she said.

Pam’s best friend and former colleague, Timi Poeppelman, part-time faculty member in the communication studies department, coordinated the sold-out fundraiser. Poeppelman said the communications department has really come together to help with this event.

She said the master of ceremonies, disc jockey, bartenders and many of the volunteers are students from the communications department. Two communications classes have also been working hard on the event.

A group from COMS 182 has been working to put together “A Wall of Hope,” which will display the pictures of children who have had or still have histiocytosis along with their stories. The group contacted families whose children are suffering or have died from the disease and asked them to send a photograph along with the story of their child to be displayed at the event.

Another class that has been working hard is COMS 212, a graduate seminar in group communication, found and trained volunteers as well as found the appetizers and desserts for the event.

The Sangers live in Folsom and have received help from the community there as well. Other mothers in the Folsom area helped put together a garage sale that made more than $1,500 for the Histiocytosis Association of America.

The money raised will come from cash donations, the sale of tickets, a silent auction, a live auction and the sale of “Night of Hope” specialty bracelets.

The auctions will include such items as a two-night stay in La Hoya, a limo ride and dinner for eight at Mikuni, a stargazing trip with an astronomy professor for a group of fifteen, a sapphire and diamond ring, an Oregon vacation package and a backstage River Cats package among other items.

Patrick’s mother said she is amazed by his optimism. “He’s very resilient and adaptable,” she said, “He’s been sick his whole life so he has no frame of reference to know he’s missing out.”

When he was in the hospital earlier this year it had been raining for days when he was finally well enough to go home. The day he left the hospital the rain had stopped and Patrick’s mom said all he had to say was, “Look mom, it’s sunny. I’m so lucky.”

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Rebecca Adler can be reached at [email protected]