‘Voices for Angel’ to aid cancer patient
A group of musicians is holding a festival Sunday to benefit Angel Dean, 25, as she fights a rare cancer and waits for a new liver.
Blues, folk and rock musicians are taking over the Prickly Pear Restaurant and Nightclub from 1 p.m. to midnight, with proceeds going to Dean’s family. It costs $8 to get in.
“It sounds like a great thing to do,” said Kim Garrett, a member of the new nonprofit committee that calls itself F.I.R.E., Friends Inspired 2 Rock Evansville, which is putting on the “Voices for Angel” festival.
“There were a lot of comments about how things like that aren’t done here in Evansville.”
Lawren Green, another member of F.I.R.E., is a hairdresser who has known Dean several years. The music festival grew from there.
STORY TOOLS
* E-mail story
* Comments
* iPod friendly
* Printer friendly
related linksMore Local Entertainment
* Creedence Again pays tribute to CCR’s classic sound
* Diversions for May 24, 2007
* Pat Benatar has some help keeping up the motivation
Dean has been battling a rare form of cancer since she was a 16-year-old sophomore at Central High School. Doctors soon removed an 11-pound tumor from her liver.
The type of cancer she has, synovial cell carcinoma, usually attacks the joints and tendons; Angel’s is the only case that has been found on a liver.
Tests revealed that the number of tumors on her liver nearly tripled from February to March, from four to 11, said Evelyn Dean, Angel’s mother.
There have been numerous fundraisers to help Dean, but her family has racked up thousands of dollars in doctor bills and they have resigned themselves to losing their house, Dean said.
A liver transplant can cost up to $250,000, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Angel she looks like she has bad days where she’s tired, but that’s normal,” Evelyn Dean said.
This is the first festival from F.I.R.E. as an official nonprofit, said Garrett, who is not a musician but who is friends with many of those involved.
Many of the musicians involved hosted a Hurricane Katrina fundraiser in 2005 at the Brick House.
The group plans to hold several more fundraisers, Garrett said, possibly on an annual basis.
“Right now we want to make sure we get through this,” she said.
source : www.courierpress.com
