More Event Information

*4 person best ball $40 per person -includes 18 holes and supper ($30 per cart – only reserve if you need one)
*10 AM Shotgun start (registration starts at 8:30am)
*Lunch will be provided by Minn Iowa at separate cost
*Supper will start at 5pm (PLEASE RSVP if you are JUST eating supper and NOT golfing so I have count for food.
*Silent Auction, games and drawing runs all day
NO OUTSIDE BEVERAGES ALLOWED and must be 18 years of age to play golf….

The 2019 Larry Mair Memorial Golf Tournament recipient is David Weringa. David grew up in Elmore, MN. He is the son of Tom and Dawn Weringa of Elmore. He has 3 siblings; Dan, Dayna and Tanya. David has two children, Briannon and Stendsay. Prior to his diagnosis he was living in Jackson, MN and worked for many years as a cook and kitchen manager at Pillars. He moved to Fairmont a year ago to be closer to Mayo Hospital. He has been unable to work since his diagnosis, but his hope is to get back to work.

David’s Journey:
In the Summer of 2016, David started to experience pain in his legs and ankles. After a few months of discomfort that was getting worse he eventually went to the Jackson, MN Emergency Room. They sent him home with pain medications. This happened a couple of different times over the next few weeks. Thanksgiving of 2016 David was almost to the point where he was unable to walk. He had experienced numerous occasions where he had to be carried up and down his apartment stairs and was having difficulty working any longer. He was taken back to the ER and bloodwork was taken. November 30, 2016 David was sent to the Sanford Cancer Center in Worthington, MN to meet with Dr Bleeker who would give him the diagnosis of Leukemia. He was told he needed to get to Sanford in Sioux Falls, SD immediately as he had weeks, not months, to live. After further testing at Sanford, Sioux Falls, SD David was officially diagnosed with BCell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (BCell ALL) and greater then 90% of cancer cells were in his bone marrow. David would stay in Sioux Falls until the beginning of May 2017, having gone thru 8 cycles of Hyper CVAD chemo. He was put into remission during this time

June of 2017 David’s care was transferred to Mayo Hospital, Rochester, MN. He was put into a maintenance therapy program while awaiting a bone marrow transplant consultation. July 11, 2017 David met with the Dr to start the transplant process. Dan, David’s brother, was tested to be a match, but unfortunately, was only a 50% match. In September of 2017 David had a positive blood test for Leukemia show up as a Minimal Residual Disease and he was started on blinatumomab chemo. October 12, 2017 he was once again in remission and the transplant process could continue. David’s match was found to be a person from Germany who matched him 10/10 and was found on www.bethematch.org.

November 30, 2017, exactly a year from the date of diagnosis, David’s Donor cells were injected into his bone marrow. The transplant process is not an easy process on the patient or on the family/caregivers. There are many months that the patient has to be within minutes of the hospital in case of something happening from the bone marrow transplant. Within a week of transplant David was admitted to the hospital with complications. He would spend nearly 3 weeks inpatient and during the next 2-3 months he would have daily hospital visits for bloodwork. On day 100 March 9, 2018, the day we thought David would be released to come home we were given the news that David had relapsed, again. He was started on salvage chemotherapy of Inotuzumab. This chemo would give him fevers and Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD). April 4, 2018 David was again into remission and put into out patient monitoring.

May 15, 2018 he once again relapsed. He went thru Inotuzumab chemo again and the process again was repeated of fevers and GVHD. July 5, 2018 he was in remission. During the entire process David was dependent upon almost daily blood transfusions. He battled multiple fevers, hospital stays, malnutrition, low blood counts, fungal infections, staph infections, GVHD and the general feeling of not just not feeling good.

May of 2019 David woke up one morning and noticed that the hearing on his right side was significantly decreased. He also started noticing pain in his right side arm/shoulder area. He went to the local ER and they sent him home with pain meds. June 27, 2019 David had his regular scheduled appt with his Hematology Dr in Rochester. Though nothing irregular showed up in bloodwork there was a small note made in his chart about Central Nervous System Leukemia due to the hearing loss, sensory change and pain on his right side. July 1, 2019 David went to his local ER and was sent home and told to be on clear liquids for 24 hours, thinking it was probably intestinal. A few hours after he was home David was taken to the ER in Rochester and after numerous tests and consults with is hematology team and his bone marrow team he was admitted back to Mayo Hospital for further testing. July 3, 2019 we were given the news that David had relapsed once again. The Leukemia is in his spine and central nervous system. We are awaiting results to see if it’s in his bone marrow.

David has not been able to work since November of 2016 and we aren’t sure when he will be able to go back to work. Due to the Bone marrow transplant he has to have his childhood immunizations again and his Dr would like him to at least have a few of those started before he’s out working with the public. Due to the setback of his latest relapse everything is again on hold and he will be having regular appts in Rochester. David is cu rrently in Rochester and will be getting intrathecal spine chemotherapy shots 3 times per week and then have hyper CVAD chemotherapy in between these shots to avoid spreading anywhere else.