Dear Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham,

Please help the people of this wonderful country and the world. You may have the very last decision over the very lives of thousands of people, when you decide whether or not to kill the Fast Flux Test Facility. You may have been told that this is old news and the facility is too dated to be cost effective. In addition you may have been told there are other facilities capable of doing anything the Fast Flux Test Facility does. These stories are not true - we the people need the isotopes that only this Fast Flux Test Facility can produce in the quantities and at the times they are needed to cure the many victims of cancer.

I would like to tell you my true story. I am a pharmacist. I completed my residency in chemotherapy at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, WA, where I was assigned to work with Dr. MacElvane of the Rockwood Clinic. I later and returned to practice pharmacy and raise my family in Kennewick, Wa. My husband was in satellite communications in the Army and became an electrician working in the research areas of Hanford.

In 1997 Mike was diagnosed to have a very aggressive form of cancer (b-cell Lymphoma). Of course I got him to one of the leading oncology physicians in the Northwest, one of the people responsible for the Fred Hutchinson Research Center. Due to my background, I made sure every protocol was followed, every advantage taken, every pitfall avoided. I trusted the system. I searched the medical literature to make sure the therapy Mike was given would give him the best chance of recovery.

I did not want to lose my husband and I did not want our children, Stephanie 8, Sean 10 and Kris 13, to lose their father and best friend. It was not until after chemotherapy failed and failed again that I was told to check into the medical isotope therapy. You see you cannot find medical isotope treatmentsunder a cancer therapy search, not even at the University of Washington Medical School's library or in their database. What I found was good treatments with successful outcomes in the 70-90 percents instead of 30-50 percent.

I wrote to researchers all over the United States to get Mike into any of the programs only to find that the programs are very limited; they can only take a handful of victims because the isotopes are not readily available. Then Mike became too ill and died on April 26, 1998.

I have to accept Mike's death and so do our children, but why do all the other curable cancer victims have to accept the same outcome? Why are the isotopes not available and being used? Why would you shut down the one facility that can manufacture the cure for thousands of people?

Please confirm the data on which you base this very critical decision. Read some of the good research. Remember your decision can save thousands or lead the same thousands to death. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Patty Leistritz

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