Howie D And The Dorough Lupus Foundation

Source: YM Online May 2002

Backstreet Boy Howie D and the rest of the Dorough family started a nonprofit foundation for the study, cure, and treatment of lupus after Howie's sister Caroline died from the disease in 1998. Here he tells ym.com about his upcoming benefit concert, explains what you can do to help, and offers one lucky reader the chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the concert in Florida.

Tell us about your sister Caroline.
My family has five kids and I'm the baby. There's three sisters, one brother, and then they had me, 10 years later. So growing up, Caroline was like another mommy to me. She got sick right after her firstborn. For a while it kind of went misdiagnosed, because there were a lot of other ailments with similar symptoms, like arthritis. But after they tested her they found out it was lupus.

What is lupus?
It's a chronic autoimmune disease, which causes inflammation of various parts of the body, especially the skin, joints, blood, and kidneys. Although the disease has been around for a while, only recently has there been more research into it. There is a higher percentage of people who have lupus than have AIDS, but you still don't hear much about it. It mostly affects women of childbearing age. It attacks your immune system, and when you're putting extra stress on your body (like during pregnancy), it can emerge. You can take medication, though, and it's a disease that, once it's diagnosed and treated properly, lots of people can live with for a long time.

So why did Caroline die from lupus?
Well, if you do take the right medicines, [they] can prolong [your life], most definitely, but I think Caroline didn't realize how serious it was. She wanted to have children, too, which aggravated it, and I don't know how regularly she took her medication. When she had her second child, she couldn't carry the baby to full term due to the lupus; he was born prematurely and suffered birth defects. But Caroline never wanted anyone to feel sorry for her. She just wanted to live life.

And was it a shock to your family when she died?
Totally. I had literally just seen her, she'd come to a Backstreet Boys concert with her friends � she even had her doctor come out, from Duke University. I knew she was ill at that point � she'd had problems because she was coughing so much, she wasn't getting enough oxygen. She was having seizures, too, but she came to a concert anyway, and when I talked to her doctor, he didn't really even seem that concerned. The next week, I was in California doing the MTV Awards. We'd just won an award, and my brother called to say congratulations, but also that Caroline was worse. We'd had another concert planned, but my tour manager just let me go. My brother met me at the airport in Florida and told me she'd had a blackout, but they got her to come back and she was laughing and joking and back to normal. But when I got to the hospital they'd lost her again; they were trying to resuscitate her, and I remember watching them beat on her chest. We were praying, but she didn't come back.

Was it hard to believe that she'd gone?
It was in the very beginning, because the way it happened, it was just such a whirlwind. The same day as the funeral I had to get a flight to South Africa to rejoin the BSB tour. I don't know how I got through that. It made me take a step back and say, "Whoa. This is all fine and great, but you know, your health, your loved ones are more important."

What made you decide to start a charity for her?
I was talking with the doctor at the hospital and he said, "You've lost a very important person in your life, but you could help other people by talking about this disease." I thought about it, and I know a lot of musicians who use their celebrity to help charities, but I wanted this to be a Dorough family thing. So I talked to my family and said, "We're going to do this, let's do this all together."

Is it difficult for you to talk about her now?
At first it was hard constantly bringing it up, but I feel she's like a guardian angel. You see all the other families out there and how many kids I've touched, the ones who have got tests or now feel they can talk about lupus openly, and you know it's worth it.

When did you decide to organize a benefit concert?
In January of 2000 we were like, "Why don't we see about putting on a variety show? Maybe we can give some calls out to people we know and tell them to come up." I did all these charity concerts always myself; I would go to other people's foundations and it would be a nice way of giving back. The first concert was small; we had a lot of local bands � Deborah Gibson, O-Town, my sister Pollyanna and I sang a duet. We had a lot of auction items. I called up a lot of friends who couldn't make it � like Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Elton John, Celine Dion � and a lot of them sent in things that we were able to auction off. Last year's concert was even bigger, and this year's will be awesome too. There will be great bands and some amazing things to be auctioned. I just talked to Whoopi Goldberg. We have a shirt she signed [that] we're going to auction off.

Are there any other events that happen during the year?
There are lots of things going on; you should check out www.doroughlupusfoundation.org for the schedule. The other big thing we have is a cruise. Last year we went from Key West [to] Cozumel in Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios in Jamaica. Fans and their families can pay to come on the weeklong cruise with us. We play charades, we do different games and entertainment. It's fun. It gives the fans a chance to see me out interacting, and it's a way for them to get to hang with me on a normal basis.

And do the other Backstreet Boys get involved in the foundation as well?
We're all supportive to each other's foundations. We're thinking of getting together and doing a golf tournament with all the money going out to all our different foundations. AJ came to the first lupus benefit concert and sang. Last year, Nicky was trying to come, but unfortunately he couldn't make it. But his brother Aaron came. We all try.

What can ym.com readers do to help?
They can attend the events, like the Dorough Lupus Foundation's Lupus 2002 concert in Florida on June 22. Some of the items we get from celebrities will be auctioned online too. There's the cruise and other events mentioned on our website. We also have something set up with 1-800-Flowers, so if you order flowers and mention "Flowers for Caroline," we'll get a percentage of the money. Finally, you can become a member of the Dorough Lupus Foundation by registering on the website, and you can make a donation there � if you donate $25 or more, you'll get a teddy bear.

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Brian Thomas Littrell ~ The Golden Voiced Backstreet Boy
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