Death takes young dreamer
TEEN HELPED RAISE FUNDS FOR HOSPITAL

By Melissa Navas
Mercury News

Jan-Willem Knapen dreamed big.

He wanted to help people he would probably never meet -- cancer patients just like him. Now family, friends and strangers will carry on that dream without him.

The San Jose resident, who helped raise more than $500,000 to build a Santa Clara home for cancer patients and their families, died Wednesday after a nearly three-year battle with brain cancer. He was 16.

After his diagnosis in 2002, J.W. began fundraising to build a home away from home on Kaiser-Santa Clara hospital's campus. The JW House would accommodate families who brought patients to the hospital for extended cancer treatment stays. It was an idea he got after his family had to commute to Kaiser's Sacramento hospital to visit him.

The teen shared the idea with his oncologist and friend, Dr. Alan Wong, who had expressed a desire to offer cheaper accommodations for families bringing children to Kaiser for cancer treatment.

J.W.'s community service touched many lives, said his mother, Anne Marie Knapen.

``I think he taught us the basics of life -- hugging and kissing and loving and smiling -- just good feelings,'' Knapen said.

Since he fell into a coma Sunday, family and friends poured into J.W.'s room at Kaiser-Santa Clara to visit the teen.

One friend was the Rev. Richard Cobb from San Jose's Bellarmine College Preparatory, where J.W. attended school until his sophomore year.

``These were people who were even off duty who came in to kiss him to say goodbye,'' Cobb said of the many medical workers who visited. ``It was a beautiful scene, a hope-filled scene in this world.''

J.W. was born in Leuven, Belgium. At 4 years old he was diagnosed with leukemia, which doctors considered cured after chemotherapy treatments.

His family moved to San Jose in 1998 when his father got a job as a contractor. In November 2002, J.W. was taken to the hospital with seizures and learned he had three brain tumors.

Even while enduring radiation and chemotherapy treatments, and having brain surgery in March 2003 to remove tumors, J.W. lived by his motto to ``never ever give up,'' said Vicky Prapong, who worked with J.W. and his family at Kaiser.

``He would say, `What am I going to do? Sit around and wait to die?' '' Prapong said. ``Sometimes it felt like he was the one teaching us to cope.''

During his sophomore year at Bellarmine, J.W. could only go to school part-time. Even then, he still would come to school to receive tutoring or grade papers for other teachers, Cobb said.

``He wanted to be a part of the mainstream,'' Cobb said. ``He didn't want to drop off the scene. He wanted to be involved. I think his presence here was an inspiration to kids.''

The JW House fund is nearly halfway to its goal of $1.2 million, said hospital spokeswoman Bev Mikalonis. It is expected to open in 2007 along with a new Kaiser hospital.

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