Musicians come together for ‘a miraculous little boy'

By Samantha Test

Special to The Post and Courier

Last year, 'A Concert for Chase' helped a little boy live to see his second year of life. This Saturday, the Music Farm will host it again to help Chase Towne fight neuroblastoma and live to see many more birthdays.

The show will feature The Occasional Milkshake with Mark Bryan of Hootie & Blowfish fame, Hank Futch of The Blue Dogs and Gary Greene from Cravin' Melon. Additional performances will include The Otis Campbell Band and more special guests. T-shirts and koozies also will be available for purchase.

All benefits will go to the Chase Towne Fund. The 2-year-old is the son of Charleston natives Chuck and Christine Towne.

So far, the funds have helped ease the burden of medical expenses for the Townes.

Diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer, Chase has been under treatment at the Medical University of South Carolina Children's Hospital and has been hospitalized 160 days and counting since he was 8 months.

He's also been through 11 rounds of chemotherapy, a stem cell retrieval and six major surgeries, including brain operation and an abdominal procedure where 'they took all the organs out of his body, took the cancer out and put the organs back,' as father Chuck described it.

'He is a miraculous little boy,' he said. 'He stared all this in the face and has done remarkably well. If you saw him, you would have no idea what he's been through unless his shirt is off. Then it looks like he's been in a war. And he has been; he's been in a war for his life,' he said.

The Townes report that Chase is now doing well and is just trying to keep up with his 4-year-old sister, Olivia. However, he has two small spots of cancer left that they are closely monitoring. This is a significant decrease from when the cancer covered most of his internal body.

'People have been too good to our family,' Chuck said. 'We're doing OK now, but we're not quite out of the woods yet.'

Chase goes back for more scans on Monday to determine his status. The chances of this type of cancer returning are 70 percent.

In the future, the Townes hope to use more of the funds to find a cure and help other families coping with pediatric cancer.

Event organizer and family friend Ford McCabe hopes help make that happen by topping last year's attendance of 800.

'Chuck's the kind of guy that would drop anything to help a friend out,' McCabe said. 'They are great people and great friends. It's a very small thing we can do to be able to help them out.'

He hopes the event raises more awareness of neuroblastoma and reminds people not to take life for granted.