MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Cancer patient and avid golfer Kevin Bezon has grown too weak to stand, but the 28-year-old doesn’t regret the many things he can no longer do.
His focus is on how, from his bed or wheelchair, he can continue to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. His idea is to raise $28,000 - $1,000 for every year of his life.
“I can’t really get out much, but I wanted to do something,” Kevin said during a recent interview at his father’s Mud Island apartment.
Doctors have found more tumors on the lining of the brain that are resisting chemotherapy, but Kevin told his father, Ron Bezon, in December that his body is tired, and he doesn’t want another surgery. His father said, “He’s almost at end-of-life care.”
Kevin’s illness has left him with frequent pain and a mental disability, yet he has always looked for ways to help others. Through the years, he made colored drawings of cars and handed them as gifts to homeless men Downtown at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church Soup Kitchen, managed by his father.
Father John Hourican, pastor of St. Mary’s, said, “He’s still managed to maintain a positive disposition and attitude throughout really rather difficult circumstances throughout his life.”
Kevin has survived 16 brain tumors and 50 surgeries and also has given inspirational talks to inspire donations to St. Jude, which his father credits with extending his life for decades longer than his initial prognosis.
When Kevin was 11 months old, doctors in his home state of Ohio discovered a malignant tumor and gave him “zero chance for survival,” his father said.
The family flew to Memphis to seek help from the then-fledgling brain tumor program at St. Jude, where doctors told the Bezons they hadn’t yet successfully treated any children with Kevin’s condition, medulloblastoma. The malignant tumor, most common in childhood, grows in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance and complex motor functions.
Ron Bezon retired early as operations manager for General Motors in 1991 to care for his son. The family moved to Memphis to be near the hospital.
Kevin couldn’t walk until he was 3. His sisters would blast Elvis tunes and dance with him to build his muscular strength. Something else took root - a love for the King of Rock and Roll. As a fourth-grader he dyed his then-blond hair jet black, to his father’s chagrin, for a performance as Elvis.
In recent years, Kevin has given many performances as an Elvis impersonator, dressed in oversized sunglasses and sequined costumes to entertain people at area nursing homes, handing out red sashes to the ladies.
At home, his room is filled with pictures of the star, including a life-size image from Jailhouse Rock. When asked how many times he’s been to Graceland, Kevin quips, “More than Elvis.” St. Jude patients get free passes, and Kevin has made use of the perk.
At the hospital, he has been part of pioneering advances. Doctors have removed some of his tumors with a gamma knife, which avoids surgery and protects critical areas of the brain, said his primary oncologist, Dr. Larry Kun. As a 1-year-old, Kevin was one of the pioneer young patients in the nation treated first with chemotherapy to allow more time for their brains to develop before radiation, Kun said.
As a teen, he rode his bicycle from Mud Island to St. Jude anxious to cheer up patients, said Kun, who has cared for Kevin for 27 years. Kevin has helped raise money for the hospital through trike-a-thons, bike-a-thons and other events.
“Kevin always sees the positive and aims to make it better,” said Kun, the hospital’s clinical director and chairman of the Department of Radiological Sciences.
When Kevin’s mother, Maureen, died in 2001, his father had to stop him from giving away his entire $10,000 inheritance. He did allow Kevin to give $1,000 to St. Jude and $1,000 to the soup kitchen. Kevin also wanted to replace his frugal father’s “boring” furniture from the 1960s - a memory that still makes Kevin laugh.
His father said, “We can either laugh or cry each day, and we decided to laugh. “
Kevin spent Christmas at Methodist University Hospital unable to move his arms and legs due to an infection near his brain. He calls it the best holiday he’s ever had, because his brother, Jon, traveled from Michigan to see him and they teamed to tease their father with a game they called, “Our father is so cheap.”
Kevin quipped, “He’d rather be buried in a shoe box.”
Years ago, when Kevin appeared near death, he pestered his father to buy a granite tombstone. Kevin designed it to have two hearts, one inscribed with his father’s name and one with his name above the words, “With Jesus.”
Along with splurging occasionally on special purchases, Ron Bezon said his son has taught him to laugh, and to be more charitable.
When Kevin won “the impossible putt” competition during a Special Olympics annual golf camp in 2005, he won a new set of Wilson golf clubs but opted to give them to his respite caregiver, a Memphis college student who shared his love of the sport but didn’t have his own set.
Dr. Kun calls him “a very inspiring young man.”
“I can only wish him luck,” the oncologist said of Kevin’s fundraising goal. “He’s determined, so I feel he’ll find a way.”
ALSAC, the St. Jude funding arm, fundraising.stjude.org, has set up a donation page at memne.ws/bezon to explain the effort.
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