18-Dec-13 – From a luxury East Lake Shore Drive condo to upper-floor suites of the Ritz-Carlton, a Streeterville hospital campus, and hotspots like Old Town Social and Local Root, Chicago author Jill Folan’s newly released book, A Mile of Mayhem, allows readers an unsettling, hyper-local glimpse at a decidedly dark side of the city’s North Side.

Set entirely in the Streeterville, Gold Coast, and Old Town neighborhoods, Folan’s novel, written under the pen name Jilly Langlan, follows new and reluctant vampire Dr. Ian Bennett, a respected oncologist at a prestigious Chicago hospital. Obvious fiction…but with a heavy dose of reality.

As experts advise, “Write what you know,” and that is exactly what Folan did. She started the novel during her husband, Mike Folan’s, first inpatient stay for lymphoma treatment at Northwestern University’s Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center on North St. Clair Street. She completed her self-published book a year later during (hopefully) his last inpatient stay.

“We were admitted to the hospital quickly due to some alarming lab results,” recalled Folan (right). “The next morning, in walks this brilliant, adorable oncologist who was going to save my husband’s life. I thought, hmmm, being a blood cancer doctor would be pretty sweet work for a vampire. I started writing that day.”

Folan says the book was written primarily in the hospital with ideas coming to her from the Streeterville sights she could see from her husband’s room. The idea of using the hospital setting, as well as the areas and neighborhoods surrounding Northwestern, seemed to be a natural fit.

In addition to Bennett, A Mile of Mayhem introduces readers to East Lake Shore Drive resident Audrey, undergoing treatment for lymphoma while serving as CEO of her family’s manufacturing business. There is also a popular Chicago mayor who finds himself in a razor-close election race with nefarious, bloodthirsty Alderman Matthew Janic, together with Juniper, the fictional owner of the very real Local Root restaurant on North McClurg Court.

What her husband’s doctor, Northwestern oncologist Dr. Adam Petrich, thinks about being the inspiration for Dr. Ian Bennett, we don’t know. But we do know he is delighted to have encouraged Jill to start The Double Hit Lymphoma Foundation with him and Rick Sherwood, a consultant to hospitals.

When Mike Folan was diagnosed with double hit lymphoma in June 2012, he and Jill found themselves facing a rare, aggressive, and often difficult to treat disease.

“All you have to do is Google ‘double hit lymphoma,’” says Jill. “You get page after page of articles written by researchers and physicians for other researchers and physicians. There was nothing out there for patients and their families. It was incredibly confusing and frightening.” (Left) Jill and Mike Folan from a March 2013 article in the Northwestern Memorial News Blog.

The foundation’s purpose, according to Folan, is to increase awareness of double hit lymphoma and to provide information, tools, and connections that make diagnosis, treatment, and survival more manageable – with fewer surprises and unknowns for patients, advocates, and caregivers. The foundation also plans to raise funds for research related to all aspects of double hit and other lymphomas.

Jill also shares what she and her husband have learned from the experience by participating in an advisory board for Lurie patients and their families.

“I didn’t want to feel like a victim,” she says. “The foundation, the book, the advisory board – all symbolize Mike’s and my belief that you can triumph over a very rough set of circumstances. Cancer is scary, it’s overwhelming, but sometimes you can emerge on the other side stronger and more resilient.”