↑ Grab this Headline Animator

OneMan Arctic Rowing Expedition to Support Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

January 31, 2005 -- Inspired by Jill Fredston's book, "Rowing to Latitude", Phil Hofstetter began planning his own Arctic excursion. As friends encouraged him, he decided he would row for a cause in addition to just pure adventure. Shortly thereafter he learned of another journey his friend had just started, a journey with much higher stakes: his friend's own life. There was no question, Hofstetter would plan to row for her and others fighting the blood cancer leukemia.



Hofstetter's friend, Nora (Ivanoff) Nagaruk, a young Inupiaq-Norwegian woman, grew up in the village of Unalakleet located on the western coast of Alaska. As part of her culture, she received an Inupiaq name, "Ayuu" and the nickname "Ro-ro." Ayuu is the name for a tundra plant, Labrador tea, which was used for tea and medicinal purposes. In a sense, Nagaruk became her namesake and earned a medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine in June 2002. She had just completed her second year of family practice residency, facing one final year of training, when her doctor gave her the diagnosis she feared: acute myelogenous leukemia. Her own father died from AML in 1979, and her husband's nephew died from AML in 2000. It is not considered "hereditary." Nagaruk currently resides in Anchorage with her husband Nathan. She remains in remission at the time of writing.



Hofstetter, raised in New York, moved to Nome a few years ago and became the audiologist for the Norton Sound Regional Health Corporation, the region's only hospital. He recently transferred to Unalakleet when a new subregional clinic opened there. Although ice bound, Hofstetter is training both indoors and outdoors till the ocean ice goes out in the spring.



Donations for Rowing for Ro-Ro will go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society which is a non-profit, voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. To donate, go to http://www.active.com/donate/roro, or mail a check written to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Attn: Robin Garman, Philip Hofstetter Rowing Fundraiser, 530 Dexter Ave. N., Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98109. For more information on leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other blood diseases see the website for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, http://www.LLS.org.

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

---

This article has been robotically scanned and tagged by Prnewsnow with the following search tags. No human manipulation of these tags take place.
| Staples | Staples Locations | computers monitors accessories |

---

4911 readers online...

, Local News