View "Mark's Fight" blog

Jonathan Mark Benson was born March 11, 1967 in Salt Lake City, Utah to John and Kathleen Benson. The oldest of seven children, Mark was a great role model for his siblings, Robert, Brett, Rebecca, Joseph, Deborah and Suzanne. Mark played on the basketball team at Preston High School and was elected to the second team all-state basketball team. Mark served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Raleigh, North Carolina. He married Michelle Griffin on April 1, 1994 in Logan, Utah. They are the parents of three beautiful daughters, Madelyn, MacKenzie and Megan.

In 2005, Mark partnered with Mountain Land Rehabilitation to open the Las Vegas Region and dedicated the past eight years to treating patients and providing athletic training to golf pros and the Nevada Ballet. Mark received his degree as a Physical Therapy Assistant from The University of Indianapolis, a degree in Sports Medicine from Brigham Young University, and was completing his Masters in Business Administration at Troy State. During Mark’s 19 years in physical therapy, he worked on the LPGA and PGA Fitness Vans while employed for HealthSouth from 1999 to 2004. He performed extensive research in the field of Golf and Dance Medicine. He was a sports fan, especially for football, basketball and golf. He has friends all around the country.

Mark committed his life to the service of those around him. His affection for his family, for life, for his friends and his Father in Heaven was apparent in all he did. He was actively involved in his community as a fund-raiser for the Special Olympics and Nevada Diabetes Association. He was an Eagle Scout and held numerous callings in the LDS church, including service in the bishopric, young men’s presidency, and as a youth teacher.

Mark's Battle with Leukemia

Mark was diagnosed on February 19 with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). He was immediately admitted to LDS hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah to commence a clinical trial protocol to fight this type of Leukemia. The type of cancer required an aggressive chemotherapy regimen, a prolonged hospital stay and in his case, a bone marrow transplant in order to increase the possibility of remission and hopefully a cure.

Mark’s wife Michelle relocated their children and home to Lehi, Utah so that she could be close to Mark during his treatment and therapy. Since Mark’s passing, Michelle decided to stay in Lehi.

Mark turned 41 years old on March 11 – three weeks into his treatment at LDS hospital. The best birthday gift came that week when doctors told Mark that his brother Brett was the only match out of all six siblings for the bone-marrow transplant.

While in the hospital, Mark started to develop and plan a golf tournament that would raise funds to fight ALL. He worked with parents, siblings and friends to begin to create the event.

In April, after his first round of chemotherapy, tests indicated that he was in remission. A second regimen was scheduled to follow. However, several side effects from the chemo began to complicate the regimen and kept his very competent medical team managing crisis after crisis. He developed painful fluid accumulation in his lower abdomen and the bone marrow transplant was pushed off. However, his tests showed that his vital organs were in excellent shape. He looked really good, even bald, and his spirits were high except for the persisting pain in his stomach.

Brett flew in to town on April 10 for final screening for the bone marrow transplant. All tests looked good. Doctors were encouraged that the bone marrow transplant could go as planned once Mark’s abdomen was healed.

On May 1, Mark had a procedure called Interventional Radiology to add drains to reduce fluids off of his abdomen. This would hopefully be a resolution to the fierce infection in his stomach, which was also preventing him from moving forward to a bone marrow transplant. Mark’s frustrations began to climb with his overpowering desire to get to transplant and as he became less mobile and would vomit multiple times a day.

The fluid collections in his abdomen persisted and kept him from progressing. His Oncologists continued to get nervous that they could not keep the Leukemia at bay forever, and a relapse would be catastrophic. On a CT scan, the radiologists and surgeons saw some signs on the description of the fluid masses that gave them concern--concern enough to decide to take him back to surgery to try to excise the cysts and clean out the abdomen with the hopes that the healing process would be a needed jump-start to at last get his bowel function, nutritional status and general health back on track in order to be a recipient of a bone marrow transplant.

Michelle was Mark’s constant support and sounding board. Many of Mark’s siblings planned their summer around Mark so they could be in town to provide encouragement and hope to Mark. His parents drove to Salt Lake City from St. George Utah weekly to be with him. The goal was to get Mark to the bone-marrow transplant. Mark continued to fight and a fight it turned out to be.

After five long months of ups and mostly downs, Mark’s body could not take it anymore. Many of his vital organs were compromised beyond repair. In his last weeks, Mark was calm and peaceful. He looked forward to every visit and moment with his wife, children, siblings, parents, extended family and friends. He was back to his old self in each of those visits asking about others and dreaming about the future.

Jonathan Mark Benson passed away peacefully in his hospital bed, with Michelle at his side, on July 9, 2008.