Lymphoma

Ann Bianco Alexander, a Baltimore actress whose successful struggle to overcome lymphoma nearly a decade ago allowed her to return to the stage, died of pneumonia Monday at University of Maryland Medical Center. She was 47 and lived in Ellicott City. She was born Ann Marie Bianco in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. Her interest in singing and performing began in her childhood when she and her siblings put on backyard shows and used a tape recorder to script imaginary radio shows. By the age of 12, she was taking voice lessons, and during her high school years, she regularly appeared in drama club productions at Woodlawn High School.

David Fowler was a firefighter's firefighter, the last one to stop searching a burning house for people to save and the guy who once cradled a fatally injured child's head in his hands after a car crash. He loved the job so much that he kept working even after he became convinced that exposure to cancer-causing chemicals during training in Millersville had caused his terminal lymphoma -- and similarly virulent diseases in firefighters across Anne Arundel County. "There are so many," said Fowler, 50, lying on a hospital bed on the first floor of his Pasadena home, as he ticked off the names of dead and dying comrades.

Busch Series driver Donnie Neuenberger of Brandywine is taking an indefinite medical leave of absence as the driver of the Moy Racing No. 77 car. Neuenberger has been diagnosed with follicular non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He will begin treatment immediately. Three-time Hagerstown Speedway champion Roy Deese of Jessup leads a tight points race in the late-model division, with Gary Stuhler of Greencastle, Pa., only one point behind going into Saturday's race. Ronnie Dennis, also from Jessup, has a one-point lead in the pure stocks division.

On Sunday, September 7, 2003, JOSEPH DAVID STROSNIDER, 64, died at his residence. Born September 7, 1939 in Baltimore, Maryland, he is the son of Marian Wolfe and the late John Strosnider and stepfather Jay H. Wolfe. He was a retired U.S. Air Force Captain and is survived by his wife of 36 years, Karie Strosnider, his four children, Shawnna, Lara, Dave, and Sam, and three grandchildren Kelsey, Tabytha, and Bode. He was preceded in death by his sister, Janet Hill, and brother, Ronald Wolfe.

On July 4, 2003, JOHN C.; beloved husband of Eileen P. Bruns (nee Wilhelm); devoted father of Nancy Lee Anderson and Barbara Ann Jones; dear brother of Conrad A. Bruns. Also survived by six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Relatives and friends are invited to call at the Schimunek Funeral HOme, Inc., 9705 Belair Road (Perry Hall), on Saturday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 P.M. and Sunday from 2 until 4, at which time services will be held. Interment at a later date in Arlington National Veterans Cemetery.

Gary Jobson is having a "good day," his first really good day in a long time. The sailing celebrity - America's Cup winner, ESPN commentator and producer - walks swiftly around downtown Annapolis on an afternoon as bright and sunny as his mood. He talks eagerly about the book he's writing about racing. And, he jokes about his thin, wispy tufts of white hair, telling a guest he's sporting "the hatched-chicken look," the result of chemotherapy. For the last few months, the sailing world has been without its mainstay as Jobson, one of the nation's most recognizable sailors, has canceled appearances around the country for the first time in years.

For more than a decade, Gary Jobson has crisscrossed the country raising money for research to find a cure for leukemia and lymphoma. Now, the television voice of the America's Cup and soul of the Maryland sailing community is being treated for lymphoma. Jobson, 52, learned he had the disease last week and began an aggressive six-month regimen of chemotherapy treatments last Friday. "It was a rough weekend, but he's feeling better," his secretary, Kathy Lambert, said yesterday. "His spirits are up."

A blast of cool air and a cold drink greeted guests inside the Chestnut Ridge Country Club clubhouse -- a welcome reward for spending a hot day on the course competing in the "Celebrity Golf Classic for Leukemia," benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Maryland Chapter. Golfers munched on chicken wings, wontons and meatballs, while mingling with local sports celebrities who had also played in the tournament. But it was the event's honorary chairman -- Henry J. Knott Jr., who had died the previous week of the disease -- who received the evening's major tribute.

For two months, 30-year-old Katrine Wallace, a senior pharmaceutical research associate in Chicago, had been growing increasingly distraught over her swollen neck glands. Though they weren't troublesome enough to necessitate a doctor's visit, she decided to consult a few medical Web sites, including www.mayo. edu and www.drweil.com, for a virtual diagnosis. What she got was a virtual death sentence. "They all associated swollen glands with lymphoma," Wallace said. Lymphoma is an umbrella term covering two cancer subtypes, Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which are malignant transformations of those cells vital to the body's immune response.