Thank you for visiting The Anderson’s Army Website

We are developing this site to raise awareness about Melanoma and raise money for research. This website is being created in Memory of Brian Anderson who lost his battle with “The Beast” June 18, 2004.

   We are offering Black Awareness Auto Ribbons and Wrist Bracelets with proceeds going to The Melanoma Research Foundation. Please contact Ryan Parrish at andersonsarmy@aol.com for information on these great fundraisers.

   Brian Anderson was so much more than a person with cancer. He was a husband, father, son, brother, uncle and best friend. He was someone who made everyone's lives brighter. He was also the most giving person. This is what one of Brian's friends and coworkers had to say about him: "Brian is the type of guy who would give you the shirt off his back and never remind you where you got it." That says it all. He was a firefighter & paramedic. He loved to golf and water ski. He was an avid sports fan (Go Bucks!). Probably one of his favorite things to do was wrestle with his boys but melanoma took that  all away from us.

Here is his story:

   In July of 2000 Brian had a mole removed from his right shoulder. It was a huge surprise when the doctor's office called and said it was malignant melanoma. We had no idea what we were dealing with.  Brian then had a surgical procedure called a wide local excision (WLE) where they remove a good portion of skin where the mole had been to get clear margins. They also did a sentinel node biopsy       ( SNB ) to check his lymph nodes for the disease. The surgery went fine and his lymph nodes came back all clear and we breathed a sigh of relief assuming everything was fine. He continued to see his dermatologist and get chest x-rays. I don't think we ever imagined what lay ahead.  

   In Feb. of 2003 we got a call from his dermatologist. It is never a good sign when a doctor calls you at   home on a Sunday night and says they need to see you first thing in the morning. Of course Brian was on duty that night and I called him to tell him. Being Brian, he assured me that everything was going to be okay. He ended up leaving work to come home to comfort me. That was Brian - worrying about me and not himself. We went to the doctor the next day and found out his melanoma had metastasized to his lungs. His doctor had already made an appointment for him at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus . You can imagine how nervous we were when we arrived at the appointment. Not only were we nervous, we were totally clueless.

   To make a long story short, we were told there was no cure for this disease and most of the treatments that are available have, at best, a 20% chance of working. That is not even 20% at remission, just a 20% chance that it might shrink the tumors a little bit. Brian tried different treatments -   high doses of Interleukin 2, Interferon, Decarbazine and Patrin. Nothing worked. He was still very active until a month or two before he died. We actually went on vacation about 5 weeks before and he even endured a day at Disney World! He eventually had to be put on oxygen and on June 18th with family and friends gathered around him he left.

   Despite what you might think, Brian's story does not end there. It continues every time someone comes on this website, every time someone says his name, every time someone puts on a "Fight the Beast" wristband. Thank you for helping us continue Brian's story!