Fundraiser for local man set for Thursday

Alice Campbell Havre Daily News [email protected]

Fellowship is one of the main things that has helped Curt and Jayne Azure through the last few months, and Thursday that will help again during a benefit dinner. "It's pretty overwhelming," Jayne, Curt's wife, said about the toll his fight with cancer is having on the family. "It's exhausting to have to go and try to fill out all the paperwork. And it seems like there's always something I have to do regarding this," she said. But family, friends and faith have kept the two going. "We have a huge faith in God, so through that and our friends and family, we've had a lot of support that way, and people have been really helpful," she said. "That really helps to make things seem not so overwhelming some days," she added. The benefit dinner, from 5 to 8 p.m., will be held at the St. Jude Thaddeus Church Parish Center, 440 7th Ave., Havre, to alleviate some of the stress. "It's to help with (Curt's) medical expenses," Jay Hammond, who is heading up the benefit and is Curt's employer, said. Barbecue beef, baked beans and potato salad will be served and two halves of a pig donated by Kory Gerky will be raffled off, with the winners announced at the event's close. Diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkins lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia toward the end of March, Curt has been undergoing treatments at the Sletten Cancer Institute in Havre for one week out of each month that include one day of eight to nine hours of intravenous chemotherapy and four days of two hours of the same, Jayne said. In addition, he has his blood checked an average of once a week to monitor blood cell levels. "(The doctor) said he would go through six months of treatments, and Then he hopes to put him in remission," Jayne said, adding that after remission, the doctor said "he would talk about a cure." Curt expected to return to work after his first treatment, but a case of pneumonia landed him in the hospital for 11 days and because of fatigue and nausea coupled with the treatment routine, he has been unable to return since. "We don't have any medical insurance," Jayne said. Because of that, "we incurred a very large bill from the hospitalization," when Curt had pneumonia. Also, the bills from two rounds of treatment have accumulated to about $25,000, Jayne said. They've applied for charity care, which could help immensely, but the treatments and tests will be ongoing, she added. But it's not just the medical bills: "I only work part-time, and so it's affected us a lot in order to pay just the rent and buy groceries," she said. "It's been a struggle financially, definitely." Jayne said she and Curt are looking forward to the benefit and continue to be thankful for the community's support. "We're really excited about (the benefit). And we always thought Curt had a great boss, but this has really reinforced that belief," she said. "And we're really thankful." "We've had a lot of people from his family and some old friends of his that have sent cards or e-mails and money. It's just been amazing, really," Jayne said and added, "Both our families have been a big help. "We think that it will help us out a lot financially," she said. For more information, call Hammond at 262-3787. Donations can be mailed to Curt Azure, 1170 Lincoln Ave., Havre, MT 59501.