Bowl-A-Thon to help long-time Cape resident with cancer treatments
You may know Judy and Ken King, who have lived in Cape Coral for the last 50 years.
Judy King served as a nurse here, the family owns its own landscaping business, and they are parishioners of St. Andrew Catholic Church.
Judy, a mother of four, is now battling Stage 4 melanoma. She is currently receiving groundbreaking therapy at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and must make frequent trips there.
A Bowl-A-Thon benefit will be held on Thursday, Nov. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Gator Lanes in Fort Myers to help with mounting medical and travel expenses.
They are part of a very tight-knit local family, which is helping organize the event. They are asking for bowlers and sponsors of bowlers.
Kathy King-Lilly is Judy’s sister-in-law and family spokesperson for the event.
“We are an extremely close-knit family,” she said. “That is both the O’Conner and King families. Judy is now undergoing intensive procedures and treatments that will keep her in Houston for many weeks. Please help us offset some of the cost their family will incur during this current battle for Judy and a cure for this type of cancer.”
You can bowl or sponsor a bowler at any price per pin.
For full details, go to
giveforward.com/knockingpinsdownforjudy.
This isn’t the first time Judy King has battled cancer, said King-Lilly.
“She was rediagnosed in August, told that the cancer had come back. This time is was not only in the adrenal glands, but also in the right femur bone, the largest bone in your body.”
When they got that information, she said, they found that the treatments will have to be much more severe and three weeks apart, so she has be there in Houston each time in less than a month, and for that much longer of a time.
“Right now they don’t know how many months this will last. They will keep doing it (treatment) until the cancer is gone.”
King-Lilly described Judy.
“Judy is a caregiver. She went to school for nursing, she worked in the delivery room, she even helped with my babies. After she had her children and went back to work she worked as an in-home caregiver to those with terminal illnesses.
“She also cared for my mother in the last year of her life. She kept our family from crumbling.”
Gator Lanes Bowling Center is at 7050 Crystal Dr. in Fort Myers, at Crystal Drive and U.S.-41.
If you can’t bowl or sponsor a bowler you can still donate, she said.
“My brother Scott and I are offering both our emails and phone numbers – klilly2951@gmail.com or 823-9017 for me and Scott King is scottking@kingls.com and 229-6491.”