The move from Vancouver to Olympia late last year was to be both a return and a new beginning for Bill and Marcia Fromhold.
The Fromholds had made their mark on Clark County in so many ways over the years.
Bill Fromhold had served as an Evergreen Schools administrator, as longtime Educational Service District 112 superintendent, as president of the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, and, for eight years, as a savvy, popular state legislator.
His path crossed Marcia Ross’s in 1998, when she succeeded him at Evergreen. They married in October 2001. She went on to become a respected lobbyist on education issues in Olympia.
In 2008, Bill stepped down from elected office to launch a new venture with Marcia: a five-year, grant-funded program to add Advanced Placement teachers, courses and exams for thousands of Washington students.
When the project fell through in May 2008, the Fromholds reconsidered their options.
Bill joined Marcia as a lobbyist in Olympia and became a vocal advocate for the Columbia River Crossing. Late last year, they bought a house in west Olympia, close to their work.
Then cancer struck.
Both had annual physicals in January. Both got clean bills of health. But soon after, a mammogram revealed that Marcia, 60, had breast cancer.
In February, she underwent a double mastectomy. She worked up until the evening before her surgery.
She had been home from the hospital just two days when Bill, 67, suddenly found himself unable to take a deep breath.
At the hospital, doctors discovered Bill’s lungs were filled with blood. He was rushed to the intensive care unit, where he spent the next nine days.
The diagnosis came in late February: a rare and aggressive form of leukemia called blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, first diagnosed by the Mayo Clinic. Bill’s consulting physicians, specialists affiliated with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, had never seen a case of it.
The alliance is a collaboration of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s Hospital that provides advanced therapies and clinical studies for cancers and related diseases.
Those days in the ICU were touch-and-go. “The problem was, my blood count was really low,” Bill said. “They were going to do a biopsy on my swollen lymph nodes, but because of my low blood count, they couldn’t take the risk.”
Marcia, providentially, recovered quickly from her surgery and is back at work full-time.
“I’m pretty much at 100 percent,” she said Thursday in an interview with the couple from Bill’s hospital room. “I feel great, I have a lot of energy. That’s really good under the circumstances.”
She has become a fervent believer in annual mammograms.
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On April 7, the leukemia diagnosis was confirmed. On April 8, Bill entered Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia to begin intensive chemotherapy. He’ll spend up to four weeks there, undergoing chemo to kill his cancerous red blood cells.
But that’s just the first step. Bill Fromhold’s doctors have been frank with him: Chemotherapy alone will extend his life by only 12 to 18 months. His only real hope for a cure is a stem cell transplant.
Stem cell, bone marrow transplants increasingly easy, common
In a transplant, “They replace your immune system,” Marcia explained. “They kill off all the stem cells and replace them with someone else’s.”
Bill also will need blood and platelet transfusions. The Fromholds encourage their friends who wish to lend support to donate blood, platelets and stem cells to their local blood banks.
The search for a stem cell match is under way. Once a match is found, Bill will undergo a four-month process to prepare him for the actual transplant, which will occur at a cancer center in Seattle.
After that, there may be more chemo, and possibly radiation therapy.
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Bill’s room at St. Peter Hospital has a full wall of windows that look out toward Mt. Rainier. He’s reading World War II histories and walking the halls, trying to log two miles a day.
He kept track of the Legislature’s special session, of course.
“One unfortunate thing about politics, it’s in your blood,” he said. “In the break from the hospital, I had TVW on 24/7.”
Bill gives the Democratic-controlled Legislature a so-so grade for its performance in balancing the budget and raising taxes.
“I think that all things considered, it is a generally OK result,” he said. “I think it’s going to be tough because of the tax vote” at election time, he said.
Marcia updates the couple’s hundreds of friends on Bill’s progress via a dedicated website.
On her husband’s response to a deluge of information about the drugs used to treat his cancer and their side effects, she wrote, “You know Bill, his reaction is, ‘To hell with all of this, just get the damn thing done.’ He is still the Bill you’ve always known!”
Bill’s friends have been subdued since his illness became public a couple of weeks ago.
“I talked to him just the other day,” said state Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, who won Fromhold’s immediate endorsement when he announced he would run to replace U.S. Rep. Brian Baird in Congress.
“He is my closest adviser, the person I turn to on everything,” Pridemore said.
How does Bill Fromhold keep his spirits up? He pauses before he answers.
“One day at a time,” he says. “I don’t let my mind get ahead of the problem.”
Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.
