Staff Writer

It was a good morning to be on a roll Wednesday at the Big 20 Bowling Center in Scarborough.

While parents and children enjoyed fun and food with nearly a dozen Portland Sea Dogs players and team mascot Slugger, they raised an anticipated $4,000 to $5,000 to help the Maine Children’s Cancer Program in Scarborough.

Program spokesman Christine Gunduz estimated at least 125 bowlers on 18 teams filled the candlepin bowling center’s lanes in the second annual event. Last year’s bowling event raised about $4,000, Gunduz said.

The Maine Children Cancer Program is 25 years old, and the partnership with the Sea Dogs started when the team began in 1994. Gunduz said more than $4 million has been raised by working with the team on programs such as “Strike Out Cancer in Kids,” which raises money for each strikeout recorded by Portland pitchers.

Gunduz said the cancer program works with 50 to 60 new diagnoses annually, an average of about one per week.

Dr. Eric Larsen, medical director for the program for the last five years, said the combination of medical and social work for families of cancer patients sets this program apart.

“The social work department is exceptionally strong,” Larsen said of the inclusive treatment programs he’s seen evolve since he joined the practice 25 years ago.

Gretchen Spann and Jane Conley each have children who received outpatient treatments at Maine Children’s Cancer Program. Initial, in-hospital stays are at Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center in Portland. Ensuing therapies and treatments and outreach programs to help parents and siblings are at the Scarborough campus off Route 1.

“They don’t forget you,” Conley said. It’s been almost 15 years since her late son, Patrick, received treatments for a malignant brain tumor. Her son was diagnosed at age 3 with cerebral neuroblastoma, a tumor so rare it had not been seen in Maine and rarely in Boston, Conley said.

His treatments required radiation, chemotherapy and two surgeries. He died of a stroke in November 2008 when he was 16, Conley said.

“Not once did I feel insecure that I was in the wrong place,” she said. Doctors collaborate with cancer centers including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan; and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

“There are no egos involved and they encourage second opinions,” Conley said.

Conley said she and her husband, Steve, credit the program with helping Patrick live a longer life than they might have anticipated.

It has been nearly nine months since Spann’s daughter, Neve Cawley, concluded her treatments for leukemia at the center.

Spann said the diagnosis when her daughter was 4 was sudden and shocking. A doctor who feared blood cell problems in Neve’s bone marrow urged Spann and her husband, Phil Cawley, to admit Neve to the hospital immediately.

When the treatments began, Spann said staff and social workers made certain the family was cared for as well as Neve.

“And they try to engage the child, to make the experience of treatment and the clinic as positive as possible,” Spann said.

Larsen said three social workers on staff proactively engage parents and siblings through group settings and deal with issues such as  siblings’ feelings because attention centers on treating the patient.

The process continues after treatments end, Larsen said. While the frequency of visits decreases, trauma associated with treatments can still occur.

“We follow them well into adulthood,” Larsen said.

The center has a staff of 24 and an annual budget of about $2 million, and presents an atmosphere Larsen finds very rewarding.

“I wake up every morning excited to go to work,” he said.

For every $25 raised above the $25 individual registration fee ($100 for teams of five), bowlers earned a raffle ticket for a 32-inch flat screen TV. Dave Winsor and Michelle Taylor, the 99.9 The Wolf morning drive-time team, also were on hand.

Additional fundraising events for the program include six walks throughout the state Sept. 18. Locally, the walk will occur at 9 a.m. at Payson Park in Portland. For more information about the program and fundraising events, visit fundraising.mmc.org.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337.