A Whole Lotta Family - Person Sheet
A Whole Lotta Family - Person Sheet
NameIan Edward Drazick 
13
13Birth21 Feb 1985, Kansas City, Jackson Co, Missouri34
Death18 Mar 2005, Lee’s Summit, Jackson Co, Missouri34 Age: 20
BurialLee’s Summit Historical Cemetery, Lee’s Summit, Jackson Co, Missouri1865
FatherEdward Vincent Drazick (1960-)
MotherKaren A Blinn
Notes for Ian Edward Drazick
Ian’s Story High school to re-enact young man’s cancer fight By Rob Roberts, rroberts@lsjournal.com
http://www.lsjournal.com/2012/01/04/v-story_images...ht=650&width=600
Rob Roberts/The Journal
Karen McWhirt holds a copy of the book she wrote about her son Ian Drazick’s battle with testicular cancer, which took his life in March 2005. A play, based in part on Ian’s story, will be presented at Topeka High School on Jan. 26-29.
“Mom, if I die, will you write a book about me so other guys will know and they won’t have to go through what I’ve been through?”
Ian Drazick, then a 20-year-old Lee’s Summit resident, spoke those words to his mother, Karen McWhirt, on March 7, 2005. His primary oncologist had just told Ian that his chemotherapy wasn’t working and that his cancer, which started as curable but long-undetected testicular cancer, was probably going to be fatal.
Ian died 11 days later, and his mother kept her promise, completing “Together We Will Win: What Happens When We Don’t Talk About Testicular Cancer” in 2009 and publishing it in 2010. Now, Ian’s story is about to be retold on the stage, as well.
On Jan. 26-29, the Topeka High School drama department will re-enact the story of Ian’s struggle from diagnosis to death as part of its upcoming production of “Cancer: Inspiration and Hope, a Night of Poetry and Prose.”
According to McWhirt, she got a call a few weeks ago from Pam McComas, a Topeka High faculty member who is directing the production and had learned about Ian’s story and McWhirt’s book via the Internet.
McWhirt, who has dedicated her life to spreading her son’s cautionary tale, readily gave McComas permission to tell the story and use Ian’s original music for the production. And she had several conversations with Matt DuPuis, the Topeka High senior who will be portraying her son, to help prepare him for the role.
According to McWhirt, she is planning to attend all four performances of the play.
“Even though I feel it’s going to be painful,” she said, “I’m very excited to hear Ian’s words spoken again, to see and hear his life in human form again and not just in my memory. …I think, in a way, it’s going to feel very good, almost as if Ian is still here, living on and doing this work himself. I am so very grateful to Pam McComas and Matt DuPuis and the rest of the cast for taking a profound interest in the book, in giving life to Ian’s story of testicular cancer awareness.” McWhirt works in nutrition services at Pleasant Lea Middle School but calls her work with the Testicular Cancer Awareness Project, which she founded, “my real full-time gig, my passion.”
Partly financed through sales of her book, the organization offers free copies to any public, school or academic library that contacts her through the book’s website, www.togetherwewillwin.net.
It also pays for and disseminates cards on which are printed a photo of Ian, sans the blond hair that fell out during chemotherapy, and some advice for men 14 to 45, the age range during which testicular cancer is most prevalent. According to the cards, men should regularly monitor themselves for testicle lumps and swelling; pain or dull aching in the testes, abdomen or back; and persistent cough, indigestion or sexual problems.
“And this cancer grows so fast that you can’t just check (for lumps or swelling) once and think you’re good for a whole year,” McWhirt said. “Testicular cancer can metastasize through the entire body in one to two years.”
The tragic thing is that, unlike women, who have been trained to routinely check for early signs of breast cancer, few young men have been told to check for lumps, McWhirt added.
“That’s why I do what I do,” she said. “Testicular cancer has a 98 to 100 percent cure rate if it is treated in the early stages, but no one tells young men about it. I want to change that paradigm of silence and embarrassment that shrouds this issue, because there is no reason why any young man should die from this disease.”
After Ian’s cancer was finally diagnosed in November 2004, he told doctors he thought he might have detected a lump during his senior year at Lee’s Summit High School, a year and a half earlier.
Not knowing the lump meant cancer, however, he ignored it. And by the time he finally got diagnosed, it had spread throughout his body, manifesting in multiple lesions in his lungs, liver, spleen and brain.
He also developed a potato-sized tumor in his duodenum, which leads from the stomach. It began causing the back pain that she and Ian originally attributed to a car accident, in which the vehicle they had been riding in was rear-ended. But when Ian began experiencing stomach and back pain so severe that he couldn’t stand up, he was hospitalized and diagnosed, starting a four-month battle that included surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
Prior to the disease, Ian had been a member of the Lee’s Summit High football team and, as a self-taught musician, wrote and recorded several songs, including six on a CD titled “Something to Remember” that his mother circulates as part of her awareness efforts.
Ian also sang and played guitar in two local rock bands. Members of one of them, Crimson, helped organize Rock Out Against Cancer, a December 2004 benefit to help pay for Ian’s medical bills. And during the same month, 14 of his friends and family members gathered at a local salon for a pizza party and to have their heads shaved in an act of empathy.
“The community really rallied behind Ian,” said McWhirt, who described her son as wise, witty and “the guy every party waited for.” He loved to laugh and make others laugh, she added, and he had an ornery side that enjoyed poking a little fun at others. In the end, however, it was her son’s love for others that showed through via the request he made of his mother. “I have another idea,” she told him. “How about you survive the cancer and live, and we write the book together?” “Yeah, we will,” he responded. “But seriously, Mom. I really mean it. If I die, will you write the book?” “Yes, Ian,” she said, taking his hand. “I promise you, I will write a book about you. I will make sure people know your story.”
Story in Lee's Summit Journal 6 Jan 2012
6 Jan 2012
Greater Kansas City area
This posted in the Lee's Summit Journal We were once related by marriage to the Drazick family. Ian's aunt Donna was married to brother Tom Russell. signed Sharyn Russell Pendergist 11 Nov 2012
Sharyn Pendergist
Sharyn Pendergist originally shared this on 03 Nov 2012
http://www.lsjournal.com/2012/01/04/v-story_images...ht=650&width=600
Rob Roberts/The Journal
Karen McWhirt holds a copy of the book she wrote about her son Ian Drazick’s battle with testicular cancer, which took his life in March 2005. A play, based in part on Ian’s story, will be presented at Topeka High School on Jan. 26-29.
“Mom, if I die, will you write a book about me so other guys will know and they won’t have to go through what I’ve been through?”
Ian Drazick, then a 20-year-old Lee’s Summit resident, spoke those words to his mother, Karen McWhirt, on March 7, 2005. His primary oncologist had just told Ian that his chemotherapy wasn’t working and that his cancer, which started as curable but long-undetected testicular cancer, was probably going to be fatal.
Ian died 11 days later, and his mother kept her promise, completing “Together We Will Win: What Happens When We Don’t Talk About Testicular Cancer” in 2009 and publishing it in 2010. Now, Ian’s story is about to be retold on the stage, as well.
On Jan. 26-29, the Topeka High School drama department will re-enact the story of Ian’s struggle from diagnosis to death as part of its upcoming production of “Cancer: Inspiration and Hope, a Night of Poetry and Prose.”
According to McWhirt, she got a call a few weeks ago from Pam McComas, a Topeka High faculty member who is directing the production and had learned about Ian’s story and McWhirt’s book via the Internet.
McWhirt, who has dedicated her life to spreading her son’s cautionary tale, readily gave McComas permission to tell the story and use Ian’s original music for the production. And she had several conversations with Matt DuPuis, the Topeka High senior who will be portraying her son, to help prepare him for the role.
According to McWhirt, she is planning to attend all four performances of the play.
“Even though I feel it’s going to be painful,” she said, “I’m very excited to hear Ian’s words spoken again, to see and hear his life in human form again and not just in my memory. …I think, in a way, it’s going to feel very good, almost as if Ian is still here, living on and doing this work himself. I am so very grateful to Pam McComas and Matt DuPuis and the rest of the cast for taking a profound interest in the book, in giving life to Ian’s story of testicular cancer awareness.” McWhirt works in nutrition services at Pleasant Lea Middle School but calls her work with the Testicular Cancer Awareness Project, which she founded, “my real full-time gig, my passion.”
Partly financed through sales of her book, the organization offers free copies to any public, school or academic library that contacts her through the book’s website, www.togetherwewillwin.net.
It also pays for and disseminates cards on which are printed a photo of Ian, sans the blond hair that fell out during chemotherapy, and some advice for men 14 to 45, the age range during which testicular cancer is most prevalent. According to the cards, men should regularly monitor themselves for testicle lumps and swelling; pain or dull aching in the testes, abdomen or back; and persistent cough, indigestion or sexual problems.
“And this cancer grows so fast that you can’t just check (for lumps or swelling) once and think you’re good for a whole year,” McWhirt said. “Testicular cancer can metastasize through the entire body in one to two years.”
The tragic thing is that, unlike women, who have been trained to routinely check for early signs of breast cancer, few young men have been told to check for lumps, McWhirt added.
“That’s why I do what I do,” she said. “Testicular cancer has a 98 to 100 percent cure rate if it is treated in the early stages, but no one tells young men about it. I want to change that paradigm of silence and embarrassment that shrouds this issue, because there is no reason why any young man should die from this disease.”
After Ian’s cancer was finally diagnosed in November 2004, he told doctors he thought he might have detected a lump during his senior year at Lee’s Summit High School, a year and a half earlier.
Not knowing the lump meant cancer, however, he ignored it. And by the time he finally got diagnosed, it had spread throughout his body, manifesting in multiple lesions in his lungs, liver, spleen and brain.
He also developed a potato-sized tumor in his duodenum, which leads from the stomach. It began causing the back pain that she and Ian originally attributed to a car accident, in which the vehicle they had been riding in was rear-ended. But when Ian began experiencing stomach and back pain so severe that he couldn’t stand up, he was hospitalized and diagnosed, starting a four-month battle that included surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
Prior to the disease, Ian had been a member of the Lee’s Summit High football team and, as a self-taught musician, wrote and recorded several songs, including six on a CD titled “Something to Remember” that his mother circulates as part of her awareness efforts.
Ian also sang and played guitar in two local rock bands. Members of one of them, Crimson, helped organize Rock Out Against Cancer, a December 2004 benefit to help pay for Ian’s medical bills. And during the same month, 14 of his friends and family members gathered at a local salon for a pizza party and to have their heads shaved in an act of empathy.
“The community really rallied behind Ian,” said McWhirt, who described her son as wise, witty and “the guy every party waited for.” He loved to laugh and make others laugh, she added, and he had an ornery side that enjoyed poking a little fun at others. In the end, however, it was her son’s love for others that showed through via the request he made of his mother. “I have another idea,” she told him. “How about you survive the cancer and live, and we write the book together?” “Yeah, we will,” he responded. “But seriously, Mom. I really mean it. If I die, will you write the book?” “Yes, Ian,” she said, taking his hand. “I promise you, I will write a book about you. I will make sure people know your story.”
Story in Lee's Summit Journal 6 Jan 2012
6 Jan 2012
Greater Kansas City area
This posted in the Lee's Summit Journal We were once related by marriage to the Drazick family. Ian's aunt Donna was married to brother Tom Russell. signed Sharyn Russell Pendergist 11 Nov 2012
Sharyn Pendergist
Sharyn Pendergist originally shared this on 03 Nov 2012