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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, November 17, 2006

Cancer patient in remission on mission to legally aid others

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

Last year at this time, David Larsen, an estate planning attorney with Cades Schutte, one of Hawai'i's most prominent law firms, was in a Mainland hospital receiving high doses of daily chemotherapy, an operation and stem cell therapy.

He was fighting multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. It's the same disease that Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and vice presidential hopeful Geraldine Ferraro fought.

Today, Larsen's in remission, and a man on a mission, noting that 5,000 people in Hawai'i are diagnosed with cancer every year.

"It's a little community here," Larsen said. "It's not one we wanted to be a part of, but I wanted to make the best of it."

Larsen decided to offer patients with current, life-threatening cancer a special deal: A cancer patient or a member of their family will be given a 75 percent discount on his legal services to create a will, a living trust, a power of attorney or an advance health directive. As a wills and trust attorney, he's been doing this work for 30 years, and his firm is supporting this endeavor.

"It normally takes two meetings and won't hurt," he wrote to cancer patients. "I promise."

Information: 521-9316.