Alan Vernon succumbs to cancer at 29

In a 1997 story on Belizeans battling cancer we profiled a young man who had successfully fought the disease known as leukemia. At the time Alan Vernon told News Five’s Jacqueline Woods that he had been cancer free for 4 years and that his doctors in Mexico were optimistic that he would live a long and healthy life. That, however, was not to be. We received word that Vernon died Thursday morning as he traveled by bus with his wife from a clinic in Merida. At the end of 1999 he had begun to experience a recurrence of symptoms and had been receiving regular treatment across the border. Alan Vernon was 29-years old. In addition to his wife Felicia, he leaves behind three children.