Mike Meents says his timing is horrible. His cancer keeps coming back just when he wants it to get lost — and stay lost.
Late last year, Meents was chosen to be a member of the 2010 St. Paul Winter Carnival Royal Family, a group he’s wanted to be a part of for many years.
Then less than a month before the start of the January carnival, his cancer returned. Treatment at Northwestern University requires him to stay in Chicago for six-week intervals, causing him to miss a chunk of the Royal Family’s events.
But Meents, despite exhaustion between treatments, won’t back down from the commitment.
Meents, a North Wind guard, said he couldn’t do it without the Royal Family’s backing.
“I feel bad I haven’t been able to be there for the guys and help out as much as I’d like,” said Meents, 41, of Mendota Heights. “It puts more strain on the guys. But everyone has been very supportive. I wish I was there more.”
Meents has fought acute promyelocytic leukemia the past seven years through chemotherapy and three different stem-cell transplants. He is in remission because of the treatment.
Jimmy Francis, the Royal Family’s prime minister, said Meents has made all the parades, knighting ceremonies and other events when he is in town.
“He doesn’t turn anything down,” Francis said. “Mike is not able to do it to the degree we are, but he’s doing as much as he can, and that’s all they ask for when you come into the deal — do what you can. And if Mike could do more, he would do more.”
Despite feeling sick, Meents made the Jan. 21 coronation at RiverCentre. He went through all the festivities, including the on-stage coronation of his sister Gretchen Spier, Queen of the Snows.
Meents and his wife, Lori, then immediately drove to Chicago to consult with doctors about the clinical treatment.
“It was really important to him to be a part of that event,” Lori Meents said.
The support from friends, relatives and the Royal Family, “has been almost overwhelming,” she said. “It’s hard to put into words.”
Last month, the Royal Family and Vulcanus Rex LXXIII, also known as Dave Johnson, hosted a barbecue fundraiser at Johnson’s Hudson, Wis., home. The $1,300 raised went toward Meents’ bills.
Friends and relatives also have organized a golf outing and silent auction for Sunday in St. Paul.
Meents, who grew up on St. Paul’s East Side, said the Winter Carnival has always been a special event for his family. He said part of his inspiration to become involved this year came from his late grandfather Walter Blomquist, who was Prince of the East Wind in 1951.
“Carrying on the tradition, so to speak, means a lot,” Meents said.
‘POSITIVE AND STRONG’
The Thursday before Memorial Day in 2003, Meents picked up a bank loan check — money he and his wife planned to use to open Lori’s business, Blush Salon in Lilydale. Two days later, after visiting an emergency room because of bad vision, doctors diagnosed Meents with leukemia.
“Not the best timing,” he said, and then laughed. “And it was supposed to be one of the easier, curable ones, too. I happen to be special, unfortunately.”
Chemotherapy put his cancer into remission until 2005, when it resurfaced. Then he went through the first stem-cell transplant.
While recovering from that transplant, Meents and Frank Sunberg, also a cancer patient, formed a close friendship.
The way Sunberg, 68, of Lilydale, tells it, he asked Meents what he wanted to do when he got well. Meents said he wanted to run a business like his grandfather, who owned Blomquist Paint on Payne Avenue in St. Paul.
“He told me to give him a call when I was ready to do it so we could talk,” Meents said.
A year later, Meents took Sunberg up on his offer, telling him he wanted to get into the pizza business.
“I grimaced,” Sunberg recalled. “It was the last thing I wanted to be involved in, really. But I get involved in various businesses as an investor, and Mike’s a special guy — a smart guy — and I wanted to help him.”
A month before Meents opened his Red’s Savoy pizza franchise in Eagan, the cancer came back. Another stem-cell transplant and remission followed. The same happened again in 2008, just before the opening of his second Red’s franchise in Burnsville.
“Right before every relapse, there’s a time that I say, ‘Hey, he can maybe move on with life,’ ” Lori said. “And then there’s the relapse, and it’s almost taken away from you.
“But he’s always been positive and strong, and that’s made it a lot easier for me.”
Because of his treatment and weakened immune system, Meents has left running the pizza shops to his cousin Jason Blomquist.
“I guess I’m considered more of an investor at this point,” Meents said.
In addition to five hours of chemotherapy daily, his treatment involves taking a clinical drug called Tamibarotene, which is approved for relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia patients in Japan, but not in the United States.
“It’s seems to be working,” he said. “It’s hard to tell because the cumulative therapy wears you out quite a bit. But I’ve been in remission since the initial induction period.”
He said being part of the Royal Family helps to take his mind off things.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s a great group of people, and a good way to volunteer and represent St. Paul.
“Ultimately, I would love to be a Wind brother in the future.”
Nick Ferraro can be reached at 651-228-2173.
IF YOU GO
A benefit for Mike Meents will be from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at Joseph’s Grill, 140 S. Wabasha St., St. Paul. It includes a raffle and silent auction. A suggested donation is $20.
Copyright 2010 Pioneer Press.