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Our Story
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1941-2002 |
On August 5, 2000, in the midst of Heathrow Airport London, Dr. Vickery experienced his first seizure. Fortunately he was accompanied by his wife, Dr. Meredith L. Warshaw, and his daughter, Elizabet Warshaw-Vickery. He was unable to speak, he was disoriented, and he did not recognize his family. Fortunately, Dr. Vickery was well known by the staff at the Virgin Airways Clubroom, having been a seasonal international traveler for his work. What was the end of a 2-week family holiday became a 2-year nightmare from which the family was never to fully recover. After returning home to California, Dr. Vickery was soon diagnosed with Primary Malignant CNS Lymphoma, a rare form of brain cancer.
There was a medical urgency to get on a treatment program quickly. Because of the professional backgrounds of Drs. Vickery and Warshaw, information was more easily obtained than for most. After only a few days the family moved to New York for the first 6 months of treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Vickery survived the first protocol and went into remission. However, what was at first a goldmine of hope quickly became a disaster.
The family returned home to California. The remission lasted only a few months; back they went to New York for more treatment. Dr. Vickery and his wife and daughter were mostly living in hospital rooms, or different apartments; Vickery's daughter, who was in junior high, did all her homework by e-mail. They were living on a small thread of hope.
The second remission lasted only a few weeks. The battle was downhill from that point on: they were buying weeks of life at a time, with shot-in-the-dark chemotherapy treatments. A long-distance team was formed between the neuro-oncologists from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Stanford Medical Center, in California. The family lived almost exclusively in hospitals for 22 months.
Dr. Vickery’s love of life, his tenacity, his breadth of knowledge and his superior physical condition at the time due to long term running enabled him to fight his disease better than most. But the outcome was still the same—long-suffering, fear, diminished hope, and eventually a premature death.
Dr. Brian Vickery died on June 22, 2002 after a long and strenuous battle with brain cancer.
After Vickery's death, Dr. Meredith L. Warshaw, his wife, and Elizabet Warshaw-Vickery, his daughter, founded FUTURE Brain Cancer Institute from their hometown of Palo Alto, CA, in the hope that they might save others who suffered from this horrendous disease. Out of Brian's death and his family's grief came something positive: a safe haven for brain cancer patients that provides support, information and research in the hope of someday eradicating brain cancer for good.
FBCI is interested in hearing your story, too! If you are interested in sharing the story of your own battle with brain cancer, or would like more information about FBCI, please contact us.
Copyright © 2003, 2005 FUTURE Brain Cancer Institute. All rights reserved.
FBCI is represented by Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati.