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Illness in the Family an Inspiration to Others

Chris Schroder

What seemed like a routine trip to the doctor this summer turned into a life-threatening battle with an unusual form of cancer for the son of Randy Thomas, a leasing agent who has worked for Colonial Properties Office Division in Birmingham for five years. The tragic diagnosis has led Randy to spearhead a fund-raising effort for a facility that assists children with cancer in Birmingham.

Randy has established the Nite-Light Fund to raise money to help extend the hours of a facility that eases the pain of children fighting threatening illnesses, such as the one that struck his own child. Fellow Colonial Properties employees and others in the Birmingham community are making donations after hearing the stories of his and other families' plight.  

This past year, Logan Thomas, who turned 13 years old on September 26, was happily playing football and baseball in the Oak Mountain league and attending Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School. On Memorial Day weekend, he complained to his parents about soreness in his left knee. The doctors began a series of tests, assuring Randy and his wife Pam that the source was mysterious, but didn't seem to be cancer. Finally, on July 6 th , testing was complete and the Thomas family heard the words they most dreaded. Logan was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a form of bone cancer found in his left femur, or thigh bone. Logan faces surgery in mid-October to remove and replace the bone and then nine rounds of chemotherapy treatments. Randy says this type of cancer has a successful treatment rate of 70 to 80 percent.

“You take one day at a time and do the best your can with whatever you are doing at the moment,” Randy said. “You become much more spiritual because some of the decisions you have to make are greater than a human has the ability to make and you have to lay it at the feet of God and say, ‘I am not capable of making these decisions.' ”

Despite the personal challenge, the way Randy has approached both it and his job at Colonial Properties has been an inspiration to many.

“The moral leadership I've seen Randy give his family is really incredible,” said Dallas Whitaker, Office Division Market Officer. “Sometimes you don't know about someone's character until they are dealing with stress. He is a solid, quality guy who works very hard and cares deeply about his family.”

Randy and Pam have two other daughters, Cailin, 15, and Taylor, 11.

Kyle Collins, also a Colonial Properties Market Officer, said Randy “continues to do a remarkable job for us. He's a huge part of our success. As an example of how others feel about him, three brokers who work for other companies have called me and said if they can show property for him during this period, they would do it – at no cost.

“It's times like these that we as a company are reminded that we are run by people and they have families and because of our environment, it has affected all of us. We have an extended family. We tend to spend a lot of time worrying about things that are very significant as far as our company is concerned, but its' important that we maintain our culture that people take a vested interested in our co-workers,” Kyle said.

Over the past five years, Randy has earned a reputation as a turnaround artist for troubled office properties. As an example, GE Capital recently retained Colonial Properties to lease space at its Beacon Ridge Tower in Birmingham, which had a vacancy rate of 70 percent and was not attracting interest. Within months, Randy found two high profile tenants, Clear Channel Broadcasting and Brookwood Medical, to lease nearly 50,000 square feet, lowering the vacancy to 47 percent. In Huntsville, Randy has assured the Progress Center vacancy rates never dropped below 92 percent, despite a steady stream of lease expirations. Randy negotiated and closed the Birmingham leases this fall, despite the personal distractions.

“I can't imagine anyone would handle it as well as Randy has,” said Dallas. “A lot of other people would put their work on hold in that situation. He said ‘I'm going to figure out how to do it all.' ”

Randy's inspirational work did not stop with these two significant challenges. As Logan's family began to research the cancer treatment options, they discovered the non-profit Harbor Center at Children's Hospital in downtown Birmingham. It provides free professional counseling and support to children with long-term illnesses and their families. In addition to providing a comfortable place for cancer patients to endure chemotherapy – which requires painful intravenous treatments for several days at a time – the center allows the children to see they are not the only ones being swept away by an angry sea of despair.

In addition to private counseling rooms, the center has air hockey tables, video games, foosball tables, libraries and computers – even a half-court basketball court. And, thanks to Randy, the center now has a new pool table, which he paid for personally. Now he is spearheading a fundraising effort to allow the center to extend its hours beyond 5pm. Randy accompanies Logan there when he undergoes treatment and takes his laptop and cell phone to set up a mobile office and continues setting up appointments.

“When I was there, I asked the director, Jim Ray, why it was not available at night,” Randy said. “Of course, the problem comes down to funding. I can see and feel the need for it. When these kids have to go back to the hospital at 5pm and can't come back until 9am the next morning, it really breaks their hearts. Imagine what it is like to be a child and have this center where they can continue to act like kids, laugh and play games and act like children – despite their treatments. As a parent, I really saw it as something that was very much needed. It is already catastrophic enough to have to come down every two weeks and take two or three days of treatment. Some kids have been here for 48 days straight. Over here they can sit out in the sun and see the world around them and realize they are not going to be here forever.”

So Randy and the center have established the Night-Lite Fund to try to augment the center's budget and allow it to stay open until 9pm each night. Many people at Colonial Properties and others aware of Logan's plight are making contributions to the effort.

“I didn't know anything about cancer before this,” Randy said. “It's a world of denial for the average human being. At first, you think it can't be cancer and then you think, no, not my son. It's an earth-shattering experience. It stops you dead in your tracks and really opens your eyes. It will change you for the rest of your life and your children. Most of the kids who survive cancer go on and are very successful because they have a great will to survive. But still, it's something you don't want to happen to anyone.”

If you'd like to contribute to the Night-Lite Fund, please send your tax-deductible donation to: Night-Lite Fund, Children's Harbor, One Our Children's Highway, Children's Harbor, AL 35010-8620. Or visit www.childrensharbor.com