Drag-racing family driven to fight spread of Lupus

Tuesday, March 21 2006, 04:35 AM EST

A DRIVEN FAMILY

Like any other race, this race for life is one they don't plan on losing.

"I didn't want to just be a victim," said Beth Blodgett, 41, a Long Beach, Calif., resident who, with the help of her family, is using their drag racing notoriety to raise money for Lupus International. "If I can help one person - even just one would make me happy."

What is Lupus?

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that affects the entire body. Some forms of the disease cause only mild symptoms, others can be life-threatening. The disease affects women nine times more frequently than men and typically starts at puberty, usually in a person's 20s or 30s. The symptoms include: - skins rashes, including the "butterfly rash" on the cheeks and nose - aching joints pain and swelling - prolonged or extreme fatigue - a bloated feeling - chest pain; shortness of breath - confusion; memory problems - fever over 100 degrees - headaches - numbness or tingling in the arms and legs - anemia - hair loss (Lupus International)

On the outside, Beth Blodgett is an energetic mother to her 5-year-old adopted daughter, Sydney. On the inside, the disease already has taken its toll, having carved lesions in her brain that occasionally interfere with her thinking abilities, and muscle and joint pain that is sometimes debilitating.

"Lupus alters everything. It alters your family," said Beth, whose cropped brown hair and rosy cheeks give her a youthful look that belies the severity of her illness. "There are times when I can't get out of bed."

At a loss for how to help, the Blodgett family decided that if they couldn't prevent the disease from weakening her small-framed body, they would become ambassadors for the cause.

Their primary goal, besides funding research into a cure, is to spread knowledge about the disease, a potentially fatal condition that affects more than 2 million Americans, mostly women, but which still lurks in the shadows of public awareness.

To do this, they're taking their message to the races.

The Blodgett family is one of the West Coast's most successful drag racing teams - Mike Blodgett Jr. and his father have won more than 100 races, including three National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) events.

And Beth, who retired from racing to battle the disease and to raise Sydney, holds claim as the "Fastest of the Blodgetts" for getting her dragster up to 169 mph.

"We're taking advantage of being in the public eye," said Mike Blodgett Jr. "It's a real close-knit community. If there's a cause, everybody supports it."

Last year, the Blodgetts started their "Race for Life" campaign (it's the same name the Lupus Foundation uses for its annual 5K run), for which they raised more than $15,000 through raffle tickets sold at various races and on the family's Web site.

All raffle prizes were donated by area businesses and included a ride for four on the Goodyear blimp. This year, raffle prizes will again include Goodyear blimp rides as well as a Hewlett-Packard PC donated by Globepc.com, gas cards donated by British Petroleum (BP), and a $1,000 shopping spree at JEG's High Performance store.

All of the proceeds will go to Lupus International, to fund support groups, public outreach and research.

"If we can help other people not end up this way," said Beth, "that is my ultimate dream, other than finding a cure."

But finding a cure could be a long way away. Scientists still don't fully understand the disease, a condition in which the immune system turns against the body, mistaking normal, healthy tissues as foreign invaders.

Lupus can affect many parts of the body including the joints, skin, kidneys, lungs, heart and brain. But it follows an unpredictable path, and no two people will have the exact same symptoms.

For some, lupus progresses into a life-threatening illness; for others, it only causes relatively minor symptoms, such as joint stiffness or skin rashes. Treatment differs from person to person, but hinges on slowing the progression of the disease or taking medications to suppress its symptoms

"The problem is that it's a disease that mimics, or has symptoms of, many other types of diseases," said Christine Kelly, executive director of Lupus International. "It's also very complex. The way that a person presents symptoms can be very different."

Doctors told Beth she probably had the disease since she was a teenager, when its telltale butterfly rash probably was mistaken for a combination of her Irish heritage and a girlish blush.

It wasn't until her efforts to have children ended in two stillbirths at exactly 19 weeks into pregnancy, that she was driven to seek answers.

Initially, doctors couldn't pinpoint the problem. But after multiple tests and several false diagnoses, it was determined she was suffering from late stages of the disease.

By this point, lupus already had attacked her brain and joints. Occasionally, it takes away her ability to use her legs, leaving her bedridden for several days at a time.

She has gone through two years of chemotherapy and has taken a litany of drugs to suppress the symptoms, but the disease has continued to progress.

"We went through a horrible ordeal," she said. "I wouldn't have had to go through all this - I certainly wouldn't have risked babies' lives - had I been diagnosed sooner."

The life expectancy of someone in Beth's case is usually 10 to 15 years after diagnosis. But every case is different, and the Blodgetts are optimistic.

"Thank God for my husband," Beth said. "He is the support of our family. He's that kind of guy."

As the family's enthusiastic band leader, Mike Blodgett Jr. has done most of the work finding sponsors, seeking raffle prize donations and contacting media. He carries around lupus literature and spreads his knowledge of the disease when he can.

"Mike worked his butt off," said Kelly of Lupus International, adding that the family's energy and enthusiasm is "overwhelming."

"He didn't leave any stone unturned. He told anyone he met, whether they were in the racing world or otherwise. He's just an incredible person," she said.

But he didn't do it alone. His father, Mike Blodgett Sr. of Torrance, Calif., helps too, spreading the word, selling raffle tickets and gathering donations.

Mike Jr.'s mom, Mary Blodgett, sells tickets at her golf club and works as the family cook when the men are at the tracks. And his brother, Matt Blodgett, 35, who is retired from racing, repairs and reconstructs the family's cars to ready them for the races.

It is a family effort.

"We really want the story to be a happy one," said Mike Blodgett Jr., whose enthusiasm for his cause seems endless, a testament to the woman he met at the racetrack more than 15 years ago.

"Beth's story is not, 'I'm sick, feel sorry for me.' It's more like, 'I'm sick, I'm going to help myself and my family is going to help me.' "

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