3rd Annual Adam Spector Hodgkin's Lymphoma Walk to Win Scheduled

Adam Spector was the valedictorian of his class at Harriton High School when he graduated in 1999.

He went on to graduate from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania and got a job in private banking with J.P. Morgan.

At 22, on his mother’s birthday, Adam was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“He was very brave—he did a lot of his own research when the chemotherapy wasn’t working,” said Adam’s mother, Lynn Spector. “But he was the one who did his own research, when the doctor was kind of giving up on him. He was 24 at that point, and he said, ‘I’m not ready to die. I’m not going to die.’ ”

Adam participated in clinical trials and underwent two stem cell transplants, Lynn Spector said.

“To be so young, to be his own advocate—I thought, ‘I guess it’s time for him to take over.’ He needed to have some kind of control. And maybe he gave himself an extra year.”

He died in April 2007 when he was 25.

“He was just a terrific kid,” Lynn Spector said. “He was brilliant, he was funny, he was kind. One of the reasons he was doing this, as he was dying, he said ‘please set up a fund.’ It was one of the last things he said. It was his last wish.”

This year marks the third annual Adam Spector Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Walk to Win. This year, there is also a 5K run in addition to the two-mile walk, which both begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 9 at .

Shortly before he died, Adam told his mom to call his employer J.P. Morgan, and within hours they called Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to set up a fund called “The Adam Spector Fund for Hodgkin’s Research.” It is now a non-profit called the “Adam R. Spector Foundation.” Adam’s family has also made a commitment to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for their pediatric Hodgkin’s lymphoma research. 

On Saturday, there will be prizes for top donors and for runners, and there are also chances for attendees to win prizes like an iPad, Phillies tickets, and gift certificates to restaurants and sporting goods stores.

“We have another son, Andy, and we start the walk,” Lynn said of herself, Andy, 25, and husband Lane. “Andy carries a balloon, which symbolizes Adam. Some people eventually get ahead of us… The conclusion of this is, Andy lets the balloon go up.”

Lynn Spector said it’s difficult to say how much they expect to raise this year.

“We’ve actually raised both times $40,000,” she said. “We really don’t know what to expect this year with the run. A lot of people sign up the day of the event. "

Lynn Spector said the first year, other people who had been involved in fundraising told them they should expect around $5,000, so they were amazed when it reached $40,000. Between the two walks and through other donations, they’ve given about $150,000 to Sloan-Kettering, she said.

She said her son has two plaques at Sloan-Kettering now, and they plan to continue the legacy he left.

“People say that Hodgkin’s is the best cancer to get, that it’s curable… When they say this is curable, this is not curable. There’s always a chance that it can come back,” Lynn Spector said. “Adam, unfortunately, never really had any kind of remission. He was going from treatment to treatment… To me, if something’s curable, no one dies." 

Last week, the Spectors were still looking for volunteers to help set up food and just to be there, as well as to be marshals. Volunteers also do canning at the Superfresh in Gladwyne.

The walk is being announced on the PECO Crown Lights on the PECO building in Philadelphia today, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Lynn will also be interviewed through several local media outlets, including NBC10 at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 8 with Dawn Timmeney, who is also the emcee for the Saturday walk/run.

“His life was cut too short,” said Lynn Spector. “And basically, he was just a really good person. He was a humanitarian. When he was going for radiation, he would see children from the Children’s Hospital. And he’d say, ‘God, Mom, they’re so young—they haven’t gotten to live yet.

“And I’d look at him at 22, 23, and think, ‘look at you.’ I never said this to him, but he was just so blown away. So with this commitment to the Children’s Hospital, we really feel we’re continuing something he wanted us to.”

Registration for the run will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 9, at the Harriton parking lot. Registration for the walk will begin at 9 a.m. near the Harriton parking lot at the tent from Whole Foods, which has been a sponsor of the event since its inception. Both the walk and the run will begin at 10 a.m.

If anyone wants to sign up for the walk or run, they should visit the Adam R. Spector Foundation Web site and download the form. If anyone has questions, they can contact hodgkins.adam@gmail.com.