May 14 — Less than one percent of the population do what Louie Bonpua of Sunnyvale is training to do.

Bonpua: "I'm training for an Ironman triathlon which is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a marathon run...26.2 miles...all to be completed in 17 hours or less."

Sound daunting? Not nearly as daunting as the leukemia Bonpua was diagnosed with.

"It's all about climbing up the corporate ladder and seeing how far you can go and making the most money and going out on vacations...It went from that to 'I'll do anything just to live.'"

Bonpua suffers from chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, or CML, a cancer that usually kills the patient within five years.

Bonpua: "But I had never really thought that a day would arrive when a medicine would be discovered."

But that day arrived when research, funded in part by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society paid off.

Clinical trials of STI-571 — developed by Dr. Brian Druker — are being tested on CML as well as certain lung, abdominal and brain cancers, with over 90 percent of patients in the chronic phase of CML seeing their white blood cell counts return to normal.

"You have to feel you're going to put money and take risks in these kinds of ways that because somewhere among these risks is a piece of gold — and STI, I think is such a treasure," says Dr. Garry Nolan, Associate Professor Oncology at Stanford University.

For Bonpua, the treasure is also a dream come true.

"I never even dreamt of doing an Ironman and here I am about to do one in 5 months and now I have dreams beyond that, one day at a time."

On June 10, Bonpua will be participating in the Escape From Alcatraz triathlon in preparation for his full Ironman in Canada on August 26.

Last Updated: May 18, 2001