September 5, 2008; News 12 at 6

AUGUSTA -- Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia are one step closer to curing cancer, at least one type of cancer.

It's hope in the form of a pill, and a cowboy is its poster boy.

His name is Willie Taylor, but everybody calls him Raymond. As he says, "everbody loves Raymond," and Raymond loves everybody.

Raymond walks down the halls of the hospital in his steel-toe boots and big cowboy hat. He has a thick southern accent that comes complete with a big smile and an even bigger heart. He's more like a character than a cancer patient, and that's just the way Raymond likes it.

Raymond is now a bright spot at the M.C.G. Cancer Center, but there was a time when things weren't so bright for him.

"I couldn't cut the grass, couldn't hold my grand-babies, couldn't get a scratch, couldn't play with my dog, couldn't love a cat. Nothing."

Raymond has a bone marrow disease that leads to cancer, something he considered a death sentence.

Cancer took Raymond's whole family.

It almost took him too.

Even worse, it almost took his spirit. "Yes, I did come to the point where I was tired of living, and I said this isn't living. Stick a fork in me. I'm done." This isn't the attitude this man, who once rode with the Hells Angels, is accustomed to having.

He came to M.C.G. for an experimental treatment. Doctors were able to find out his problem, down to the gene, and they gave him a trial drug to treat it. It's so new, it doesn't have a name yet, but doctors call it LBH589. The Novartis Corporation is still developing it.

Raymond took a few doses, and it began to work. He never expected it would. "Never, never in my life," says Raymond. "And I love sci-fi, and this sounds like science fiction to me."

This is very real, though. Places like Harvard and the Mayo Clinic are even jumping on board to do more studies.

Dr. Kapil Bhalla, who heads up the Cancer Center at M.C.G., says "some very big
name cancer centers will join us in implementing this trial because they are also excited about this outcome."

This trial could help tens of thousands of people.
What Raymond has isn't uncommon, but Raymond knows something uncommon is happening to him now, and he wants to help. He knows being part of this trial means being part of something bigger than himself.

"This is the first stone to unlocking the key to cancer," Raymond says with a smile, and tips his cowboy hat.