05/05/2001
The Toronto Star
Ontario
A18
Copyright (c) 2001 The Toronto Star
A stanza from the Frank Sinatra hit "My Way" rang down on mourners crammed into Steeles Memorial Chapel, floated over those standing in the packed entryway and filtered out into the crowd that spilled on to the sidewalk.
The melody was part of the last public performance of David Bloom, 19, a budding singer, actor and dancer who died of a brain tumour at his parents' Brampton home April 28.
In his memory, David's family will hold Brampton's first fundraiser for brain tumour research tomorrow. The event is expected to raise more than $100,000 and draw more than 1,200 people.
"The entire community is really rallying behind us," said David's father and walk organizer, Lawrie Bloom. "This is such a wonderful foundation and such an important cause that we're not going to stop until a cure is found."
A year ago, the family participated in the annual Toronto walk. By October, planning for a local fundraiser was in full swing.
Despite a regimen of chemotherapy and radiation, and a steadily growing tumour that caused migraines and bore down on his optic nerve leaving him seeing only shadows, David was happy with a microphone and enthralled crowd.
The stars were in David's eyes, even as a child. He insisted on having his name spelled in mini-lights at his bar mitzvah, where he wore a T-shirt that read, "David Bloom The Best of Broadway."
He earned his actor's stripes at Paramount Canada's Wonderland, where he played a Crocodile Dundee-type character in a children's show called Animables.
Then he landed the first of many big performances. At 17, he moved to Charlottetown to perform with 30 others in Somewhere in the World.
But calls home to his parents were peppered with comments about headaches and a general feeling of tiredness.
His parents persuaded him to get on a plane before his production days were done. After many rigorous tests, David was diagnosed with an astrocytoma, which developed into an inoperable brain tumour.
He kept performing taking radiation in the day and bringing down the house at night as Billy Bigelow in Carousel.
"He had something that I've never seen or heard of anyone having. Something that cannot be described by words. He had this power to move people. To make them laugh, to make them smile, to make them forget about their own troubles in their lives. To bring them to tears," David's older brother, Richard, said in his eulogy.
Registration for the first annual David Bloom Memorial Spring Sprint takes place tomorrow at Professor's Lake in Brampton at 9:30 a.m. The 10 kilometre walk begins at 10:30 a.m., with a minimum of $30 in pledges required to participate.
|