KX NEWS

Brave the Shave raises $150,000 for cancer patients and family assistance

Volunteers in Bismarck are shaving their heads and making donations to help the Brave The Shave Fundraiser, which helps children battling cancer and their families with expenses.

“We’ll pay medical bills, we’ll pay electric bills, whatever there need is,” Brave The Shave Director Angie Eggl said.

The organization has been hosting fundraisers for 14 years and this year raised $150,000 dollars.

“We’ve raised over half due to Covid and everybody is stressed, and some are just not there for charities during this time,” Eggl said.

And there are those who are giving, including a surgeon from Bismarck who raised over $20,000 to support this cause.

“My mom has had breast cancer, my grandmother had cancer, and she also had pancreatic cancer, my father had prostrate cancer. I’ve had a ton of patients who’ve had cancer. Cancer touches everybody,” Bismarck Donor Timothy Pansegrau said.

Tiffany Gartner is a mother whose seven year old son had high risk Neuroblastoma.

“He endured five rounds of chemo, a stem cell transplant, 20 rounds of radiation, 2 years of amino therapy,” Gartner said.

Gartner received assistance from the Brave the Shave organization to help during her sons’ treatments.

“We had a couple of benefits that helped, Brave the Shave helped too,” Gartner said.

Her son now is in good spirits and has a message to share.

“My cancer is stable now,” Cancer survivor Levi Gartner said.

Joe McDonough lost his son from cancer in 2007 shortly after accomplishing a soccer state championship in Pennsylvania.

“He had almost 50 operations, four strokes and a brain aneurysm. Sadly, I watched my son take his last breath,” Be+ Foundation Joe McDonough said.

Since his death, he later founded the B+ Foundation in his name helping families with cancer financially and funding cancer research.

“Every school day 46 children are diagnosed with cancer. Would you believe every week two full classrooms; 49 children will die each and every week,” McDonough said.

To learn more about donating click here.