Recovering Beech Creek Coach/Mayor Kline Meets Nationwide Cyclist

BEECH CREEK — Today was the day Justin Kline, fighting a yearlong battle with blood cancer, met Frank Watson the Canton man inspired to bicycle across the United States to raise awareness of the disease afflicting Kline.

It was an emotional meeting, first as Watson rode his bicycle into Blanchard and met Kline for the first time and, followed by a fire truck escort through Kline’s hometown, a program at the Beech Creek Wesleyan Church, part of a drive in order to help more people like the Beech Creek mayor.

Kline made emotional comments on his year-old battle against Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). He thanked his parents Sally and Rod Kline for their unwavering support, particularly noting that his mother had provided the bone marrow for his transplant in April of this year.

Kline told his audience he is “not where he wants to be” but gets closer every day as he continues to undergo out-of-town post-transplant check-ups several times a week.

As related by John Hanna, a fellow volunteer with Kline in local youth baseball, today was almost a year to the day, at a baseball event in Beech Creek, that Justin told him he was not feeling well. An emergency trip to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville confirmed that Justin was suffering from the blood cancer. Since then it has been 12 months of pre-transplant testing, the transplant itself, then chemotherapy treatment and now the check-ups.

Watson spoke of his support for Kline and his bicycle journey from California to New York. Impetus for the journey came from a meeting with former Lock Haven resident Bill Holland III, a teacher in Watson’s hometown of Canton.

A donor drive was held as part of today’s event. As explained prior to the occasion, registration consists of swabbing the inside of the mouth and completing a registration form. Anyone in good health between the ages of 18 to 55 is eligible. Those unable to attend today’s drive can still register as a donor and/or make a gift online at DeleteBloodCancer.org.

“There is a 30% chance to find a donor match from a family member, and of the ones needing unrelated donors, 6 out of 10 patients never receive the unrelated transplant they need,” states Rachel Clark, a Donor Recruitment coordinator for Delete Blood Cancer.

About Delete Blood Cancer DKMS
Delete Blood Cancer DKMS is part of the world’s largest network of donor centers. Its mission is to build the number of suitable bone marrow and stem cell donors, because they believe that no life should be lost due to an inability to find a donor match. They have registered more than 6 million potential donors and facilitated more than 55,000 transplants around the world.

For more information or to register as a bone marrow donor, please visit DeleteBloodCancer.org.