Page 43 - BusinessWest January 24, 2022

Fighting the Fight
Battling Cancer, Evan Plotkin Continues His Revitalization Efforts
By George O’Brien
Evan Plokin was joking — well, sort of — about just how well his team seemed to manage while he was home battling
mesothelioma and rehabbing from compli- cated surgery to help rid his body of cancer.
“I learned that this place could function just fine without me,” he said,
“Every one of us who has this disease wants our day in court, and not have this piled into a bankruptcy settlement.”
ing experience on many levels, starting with the disease itself.
Plotkin confessed to knowing little about it when he was diagnosed, other than the only way to be stricken with it is through prolonged expo- sure to asbestos — or, as he has learned since, through heavy use of talc. And a “review of his life’s story,” as he called it, revealed that he falls into that category.
“I had rashes when I was a youngster, throughout my elementary schools, and I can always remember my grandmother putting the powder on me,” he recalled. “As I got into sports, when I would sweat a lot, I would break out, and the baby powder helped. And I remember when I was playing football in high school, I would
Plotkin
Continued on page 44
Evan Plotkin says a mural planned for this wall near Stearns Square will pay homage to that area’s important role in Springfield’s history.
tongue in cheek, noting that his company, NAI Plotkin, completed sev- eral deals during those weeks while he was out, putting a cap on a busy year, despite damage done to the economy
by the pandemic (see story on page 38). “The four months I was pretty much out of action I was thinking the worst, but when I came back, all
the deals that were in the pipeline that I thought were never going to close ... things suddenly started to happen.”
Overall, this lengthy, ongoing ordeal — he was officially diagnosed with mesothelioma in March 2021 — has been a learn-
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JANUARY 24, 2022 43
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