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A raffle to save a man's life photo by Jim Craven 501-pound Tom DeLong's friends work to raise cash for fat-reducing surgery By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune At 501 pounds, Tom DeLong finds many of life's simple tasks quite literally out of reach. He has trouble reaching his trouser's zipper, he's so heavy he must stand cockeyed to keep from losing his balance, and he must crawl to pick a piece of paper off the ground. When he bends over, the pressure on DeLong's diaphragm is so great that he cannot breathe. "I have to tie my shoes in stages because I can't hold my breath that long," says DeLong, 42, of Gold Hill. By spring 2003, he expects to be less than half the man he is today after he undergoes a life-saving, fat-reducing operation that DeLong's friends hope to underwrite one $5 raffle ticket at a time. DeLong's pals within the Rogue Valley's outdoor community are holding a unique raffle this fall to help this sporting-goods clerk pay for a gastric bypass surgery he sees as the only way to lose enough weight to remain alive. They are selling $5 tickets for chances at several rifles, fishing rods, angling trips and even a deer head-mount in hopes of raising the $22,000 needed for the surgery, which will shrink his stomach to the size of a sandwich and reduce its ability to absorb fat. Doctors advise the surgery because dieting forces his body actually to store more fat, and he's quickly reaching critical mass to where he would be fully disabled within two years. The surgery isn't covered by his insurance, and he can't pay for it on his salary for selling guns and fishing reels at the Black Bird Shopping Center. "If he doesn't have this surgery, he could die," says Ron Sherva, a Shady Cove man who hunts occasionally with DeLong. "There's too many people and organizations out there that turn their backs on others. Tom's one of us, and we need to support him." The tickets go on sale today at Black Bird, and Sherva hopes to conduct the drawing around Christmas. That would give DeLong his surgery in January, and doctors expect him to have his weight down under 250 pounds in 15 months. "I don't even remember being at that weight," he says. "That was, like, sixth grade. "I've been like this all my life, and I can't imagine what I'd look like or feel like," DeLong says. "I just want to be out of pain." DeLong, who stood 6 feet tall and weighing almost 300 pounds in junior high school, always found his weight a source of pain and embarrassment. It's damaged his knees and hips to where he's a near-cripple. He got so winded while elk hunting last week that another hunter found him crawling on the forest floor and gave him a ride on a four-wheeler back to his pickup. "I try to remain active because if I don't, I'll just gain more weight," he says. Sherva, who is president of a local hunting organization that does regular fund-raisers, thought of a raffle to pay for the surgery. They have found many willing donors. "There's people I can't even put a face to who have donated guns," DeLong says. "It puts tears on your face." DeLong will have his surgery regardless of what the raffle raises, and plans to liquidate his retirement and max out his credit cards to do it. "If I don't have the surgery, I won't live long enough to retire," he says. "So that's an easy decision." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.