The Observer Newspapers | Foundation Moves Fundraiser to Reston Town Center

Nov. 20, 2009

Foundation Moves Fundraiser to Reston Town Center

By Leslie Perales

Observer Staff Writer

For the past seven years Brian Cole has been trying to make the best out of a tragic series of events.

Cole, who moved to Reston within the past year, became engaged to Ashley Fister in 1999 and while planning their wedding doctors found a small mole on her shoulder blade that they wanted to keep an eye on. A few months later she was diagnosed with melanoma. "They found out it was much more serious than they thought," Brian Cole said.

For the next year Ashley Fister Cole was treated for cancer and was cancer free after treatment. Brian Cole said she had a fair complexion, loved the sun and had spent many sunny days outside in Hawaii as a child while her father was in the military and spent a lot of time outdoors. She taught third grade students at Armstrong Elementary and the couple got married, had a house and a dog and went on with their lives.

In 2002 doctors discovered spots on Ashley Fister Cole's lungs. She went through three more chemotherapy regimens at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center before passing away in 2002, just eight months after doctors found cancerous cells again. To honor her and keep her memory alive, Brian Cole began the Ashley Fister Cole Foundation.

"It was really just spur of the moment," Brian Cole said. He said he spent many late nights filling out paper work for the IRS and setting up the foundation with the help of friends. He said he was moved to action also because it can be difficult for those who are diagnosed with skin cancer at a young age to find a support group or others in similar situations.

During her life Ashley Fister Cole had the outlook that if she could touch the life of just a single child so they could lead a better life, she would feel her work as an educator was successful. She wrote a paper while working toward her master's degree echoing that sentiment. The foundation has based its mission on touching the lives of others who have been affected by skin cancer, Brian Cole said.

"We want to 'touch the life' of people that are impacted by melanoma," Brian Cole said. The foundation began working to not only raise funds for skin cancer research, but to also help start a local melanoma support group through the Inova Hospital's Life with Cancer support services. Before his first wife's death, the organization did not have a skin cancer support group. Now the group has grown large enough to meet monthly, he said.

Since starting the organization Brian Cole, Ashley Fister Cole's family and their friends and acquaintances have worked to raise more than $250,000 for melanoma research. The foundation holds fundraisers every year that include the Driving for Surviving Melanoma Charity Golf Classic and Morning at the Movies. The foundation also participates in the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo in Washington, D.C.

This year after holding the annual Morning at the Movies event in Fairfax for six years, the event is being moved to Reston Town Center. After the Fairfax theater the organization had been using closed, and Brian Cole and his second wife Sarah Gannett Cole moved to Reston, they decided to hold the event at the Reston Multiplex.

Brian Cole said about 300 people attend each year. He said after moving to a new location they are hoping for a turnout of at least 250 people. On Saturday the foundation will be showing the movie "Planet 51" at 9 a.m. and all donations directly fund the melanoma support group at Life with Cancer. The suggested donation for tickets is $10 for adults and $8 for children.

Brian Cole said he has been lucky twice to be able to share his life with both Ashley Fister Cole and Sarah Gannett Cole, who is a cancer survivor herself. "It was a huge part of my life and still is," he said. Sarah Gannett Cole said it has been a huge honor to be able to raise awareness for a good cause and honor her husband's first wife at the same time. "It's really making the best of an awful situation," she said.

To learn more about the foundation visit ashleyfistercolefoundation.org, e-mail info@ashleyfistercolefoundation.org or call 703-435-7528. The Reston Multiplex is located at 11940 Market St.