Kristy (left) and Jeremy North react to a donation check of just over $5,000 from Tooele Transcript-Bulletin readers. The North family were the recipients of the Transcript Bulletin Benefit Fund this year.
- photography / Maegan Burr
- photography / Maegan Burr
The Norths were selected as the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin Christmas Benefit Fund family for 2009. They were presented with gifts and a check for $5,070.39 by Transcript-Bulletin editor Jeff Barrus and the newspaper’s publisher, Scott Dunn.
Kristy North, the mother of the family, said when hearing the amount of the check, “Oh my gosh. Oh wow.”
Jeremy said he was shocked with the community response to his family’s hardships.
“It’s really amazing, especially how the economy is,” he said.
The monetary donations and gifts from the Transcript-Bulletin and its readers will help the couple and their two children — 5-year-old Alexa and 2-year-old Jaydon — after a year of troubles, including unemployment, medical problems and loss of their home.
In January, stay-at-home mom Kristy, 24, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The next month her husband, 28-year-old Jeremy, lost his job and has been unemployed since. In March, daughter Alexa was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. She takes six to eight insulin shots daily, and every three months has to have her pancreas and kidneys checked.
Kristy’s ovarian cancer was removed surgically in March, but in July she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In August she had a lumpectomy. A month later, doctors discovered the ovarian cancer had returned. Kristy’s surgery to remove both of her ovaries is scheduled for the second week of January. Then she will undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
“I’m ready to be over being sick,” she said.
The North family, five months behind on mortgage payments, moved in with Kristy’s grandmother, Linda Snyder, about a month ago to avoid foreclosure. The home is still for sale.
The Norths wishes for Christmas were few, and Transcript-Bulletin readers stepped up to fulfill them.
Mountain West Medical Center donated a CT scan for Kristy, which was done yesterday. She said the scan determined that the cancer hasn’t spread and is confined to her ovaries.
The more than $5,000 check given to the Norths included one family’s donation of $1,000. A gift certificate for new tires for Jeremy and Kristy’s car was also donated.
“This is going to be the best Christmas for the kids,” Kristy said. “They’re going to love it.”
Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com
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