Annual radio fundraiser helps cancer patients

Radiothon planned on Thursday, Friday

When Christine Vance of Polson had to make 35 trips to Kalispell for radiation treatment, it was Wings that helped her fill the gas tank for the 100-mile daily trips.

"It was a godsend," Vance said. "It helped out a lot."

Wings is the local nonprofit group that provides cancer patients with money for out-of-pocket expenses, such as meals, lodging or gas, incurred while traveling to receive medical treatment.

The organization's annual radiothon fundraiser is Jan. 17 and 18, at the new Sportsman & Ski Haus in Hutton Ranch Plaza in Kalispell. Phones will be manned from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. People can call 257- WING or stop by the Sportsman to make pledges. The event will be broadcast over all of Bee Broadcasting radio stations.

All of the money raised goes to local cancer patients.

VANCE, who turns 65 next month, had only a stop-gap insurance policy to cover her from retirement until she became eligible for Medicare, but in that slim margin of time cancer came calling for the second time in her life.

She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995. The cancer was confined to her left breast, which doctors removed. She didn't have to undergo chemotherapy and everything went along fine until last June, when she stepped out of the shower while on vacation and noticed a difference in the tissue where her breast had been removed.

Tests revealed two tumors in the scar tissue and a cancerous thyroid covered with five tumors. Doctors did a "clean sweep" of the breast, taking tissue that had been left previously. They kept her right breast intact. In August her thyroid was removed and Vance underwent 35 sessions of radiation.

"I'm still tired," she said. "It's the most debilitating thing. You feel just exhausted and your muscles feel like jelly."

Vance is on the mend, though, and cancer-free right now. Blood tests in February will tell the full story, she said. Even though her latest episode was classified a recurrent tumor, Vance is hopeful that she's beat the disease.

"They say I should have quite a few years left," she said. "I take each day as it come."

LAST YEAR, Wings gave out 197 grants through November totaling $129,584. Vance was one of the recipients.

"It's a remarkable jump from the first year," organizer Ray Washtak said. Wings started in 1997 and gave out 72 grants worth $26,000 the first year.

"What that's showing is that the need keeps increasing," he said. "I've been there myself. I'm a long-term [cancer] survivor."

The average age of those receiving assistance from Wings is 67. Last year the oldest recipient was 85; the youngest was 14. Wings offers assistance in Flathead, Lincoln and Lake counties.

"The unfortunate thing," Washtak said, "is that cancer's not going to go away, so the need (for assistance) is always going to be there. And in order to help, we're going to need help."

Those who are unable to call in a pledge may send a contribution to Wings at P.O. Box 7852, Kalispell, MT 59904.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com