EXCHANGE: Widowed woman a strong link in cancer fight

BOURBONNAIS, Ill. (AP) - Shelly Link likes to hang out at a table in the center of her garage on Meadows Walk Drive with the door open and a TV blaring in the background. This is where she gets things done.

"I'm in here until the snow blows," she said.

Her main project the last few years has been raising money for brain cancer research. On a recent day, she was in the garage writing thank-you notes to the sponsors of a golf tournament to help the cause.

In 2015, her husband, Mike Link, died of glioblastoma, the deadliest form of brain cancer. Doctors had diagnosed him four years earlier.

"He had no symptoms before that. He was perfectly healthy," Shelly said. "Then, one morning in October, he had a seizure. I found him on the driveway."

Mike, then 60, was unresponsive; an ambulance rushed him to the hospital.

The average glioblastoma patient lives six to nine months, but Mike "pushed the envelope," Shelly said.

The couple decided to enjoy what time they had left together.

"The first two and a half years, he was great," Shelly recalled. "We traveled and made a ton of memories. The last six months were horrible, absolutely horrible. His brain was affected. He was in a wheelchair. The thing that lit him up the most in those last months was the grandkids."

A few months after he died, Shelly found out about an annual 5K race in Chicago that supports the American Brain Tumor Association. She got about 18 people together to go to Chicago that first year.

Shelly has formed teams annually since then. They filled up a bus last year. For 2019, she is getting a bigger bus to take about 65 to Chicago.

"This is my passion," Shelly said. "The research that is being done will help us to a place if not to cure brain cancer, at least to prolong quality of life."

For this next year, she is working closely with Bernie Hinrich, sister of Jean Kurtenbach, a rural Chatsworth resident who died of another form of brain cancer in 2012.

This year, Shelly decided to hold a golf tournament to help raise money for the 2019 5K. The event was held Sept. 29 at Aspen Ridge Golf Course in Bourbonnais, pulling in nearly $8,500. Her team's slogan is "a link to a cure."

With the golf money, Shelly is already ahead of her original $3,000 goal for next year's 5K.

"We are so beyond anything that I anticipated," she said.

For that, she thanks the businesses and individuals supporting the effort, noting the golf tourney attracted 58 sponsors when she aimed to get 18. Eighty-four golfers took part.

"The generosity and willingness of these businesses should be highlighted," Shelly said. "I know for a fact that these same businesses that we approached are approached all year long for donations for a variety of good causes."

She said she wanted to spread the word about local donors.

"The Kankakee area gets bashed so much. There are so many good people in this community who are so incredibly generous and who are willing to support efforts like this," Shelly said. "We have crime and other issues; but it's still a good solid community."

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Source: The (Kankakee) Daily Journal, https://bit.ly/2QZ2FZU

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Information from: The Daily Journal, http://www.daily-journal.com