JoJo David, the BC bOp! vocal coach stricken with non-Hodgkinís lymphoma who last year underwent a bone-marrow transplant to save his life, reports that he has scored an apparent victory over cancer.
In an e-mail message sent to friends and supporters in mid-February, David announced that a recent checkup had found him cancer-free.
"The only things growing in my chest are a desire for tomorrow and an unconditional love for today," wrote David. "My eight-month post-transplant checkup merely confirmed what I already knew - I am well, and I thank God and all creation for that."
In the course of treatment for the disease discovered a year ago after he lost his singing voice, David underwent nine bouts of chemotherapy and 28 radiation treatments in addition to the bone-marrow transplant. Friends formed e-mail prayer circles in his behalf, and staged a benefit concert last April at St. Ignatius Church, where he and his wife, Anne Marie, have been active in music ministry.
The couple plan to make a pilgrimage this month to the village of Lourdes, a widely-revered holy site in the French Pyrenees. On their return, he is to start a new job developing music-education products for a New Hampshire Internet company, and continue as a part-time vocal coach with BC bOp! She expects to release a recording of her piano solos later this spring.
JoJo David and wife Anne Marie in photo accompanying an e-mail message they sent at Christmas time. The couple plan to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, then return so he can once more take up his duties with BC bOp!
"Well, my friends, Iím back," David wrote in an e-mail this past Thanksgiving. "Everything and anything is possible - why not?
"ÖAs I pick up my journey further from [lifeís] ledge, I do so with every sense of what it was like to be on that ledge. I was told of a painting of Mary, walking away from Jesusí open tomb, glancing back at the stone cave as she moved on. What has been, has been. I carry forward with me what matters most...And Iíll see that painting up close some day, I know I will."
-Mark Sullivan