Playboy, party animal and temperamental television actor Charlie Sheen has a softer side that grabs fewer headlines: philanthropist with a heart of gold.
On Sunday, the star of “Anger Management” donated $75,000 to a benefit fund set up by the Hermosa Beach Police Officers Association to help pay for the medical costs of the 10-year-old daughter of Officer Everett Faulk, diagnosed in September with a particularly aggressive form of pediatric cancer.
Sheen’s stunt double, Eddie Braun, who apparently relayed word of Jasmine Faulk’s plight to the father of five, added another $25,000.
“It was amazing,” Everett Faulk said of the unexpected donation. “I have never met either one of them. What a blessing from two guys who don’t even know me or my daughter.”
Faulk’s daughter, who was a pupil at Torrance’s Victor Elementary School, is now home-schooled as she undergoes a grueling regimen of 48 chemotherapy and radiation treatments over the next year at UCLA’s Pediatric Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Program.
“When she found out she had cancer, the first thing she said is, `Am I going to die?”‘ her father recalled. “She has said, `If I get through this, I want to be a nurse … and help kids with cancer.”‘
That’s typical of a child her father described as a “real giving person.” Three years ago, his daughter – who turned 10 in October, the same month she started treatment – donated her hair to kids with cancer.
“She is all about giving and helping,” said Faulk, who has been with the department since 2006. “Now she needs the help.”
Jasmine has a massive challenge ahead of her.
Her form of cancer, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, has reportedly been described as “a very mean childhood cancer” by University of Utah researchers.
Even with aggressive treatment, only 20 percent of children diagnosed are likely to survive longer than five years, researchers said in 2004.
In Jasmine’s case, surgery is out of the question.
Removing the cancerous soft tissue in her nasal cavity would result in the loss of an eye, her father said.
In response to Jasmine’s condition, the Southern California law enforcement community has rallied around one of its own.
Departments and officers throughout the region are helping set up fundraisers or spreading word of the benefit fund, as a Manhattan Beach officer did in the case of Sheen’s stunt double. The LAPD, for instance, held a barbecue fundraiser earlier this month.
An aunt has set up a blog at jasminefaulk.com that is tracking her treatment.
The small Hermosa Beach Police Department, which has only about 40 sworn personnel, also has set up a Facebook page – Hermosa Beach Police Officers Association supports Jasmine Faulk – for her.
“We all know everyone’s wife, we all know everyone’s children,” said Detective Mick Gaglia, a department spokesman. “There’s all sorts of unforeseen (treatment) costs. It’s going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It’s nothing we were soliciting,” he added of the donations from Sheen and his stunt double. “It was a surprise.”
Braun, the stunt double, left a message on the Facebook page.
“Jasmine, I don’t know your Daddy, but he is a Hero,” said the Manhattan Beach resident. “He has protected me and my family and watched over us even though he doesn’t even know us.
“He protects you and loves you and will do everything he possibly can with the Lord’s help to get you through this difficult time, and we as a very grateful community will do what small part we can to help your Super-Hero Dad protect and watch over you.”
Despite his playboy reputation, Sheen is also known for his charitable works.
He has financially supported breast cancer research, Japanese earthquake relief efforts, the USO and, most recently, troubled actress Lindsay Lohan.
Sheen’s donation was announced via Faulk’s Facebook page and was not released by the actor’s representatives.
“He makes donations and gives help to people all the time,” said Larry Solters, a spokesman for Sheen. “We try to keep it quiet and we don’t seek publicity.”
Now one South Bay child, starting just her second week of radiation, is the latest recipient of the former “Two and a Half Men” star’s largesse.
“It’s been hard on her. She has been quite weak and tired,” Faulk said. “She doesn’t even know what Charlie Sheen did yet.
“She has an extremely long road ahead of her. This type of cancer she has, even after getting through all the treatments, it could still come back.”