Jamestown — Residents here are teaming up in honor of one of their own. Longtime Jamestown native Betty Cochran was hospitalized in late May and has since been diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer.
According to the National Cancer Institute, inflammatory breast cancer is a rare but very aggressive type of breast cancer in which the cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin of the breast.
This type of breast cancer is called “inflammatory” because the breast often looks swollen and red, or “inflamed.” IBC accounts for 1 to 5 percent of all breast cancer cases in the United States.
Cochran has lived in the Jamestown community for more than a quarter century and is a co-owner of Cochran’s Catering & Cakes with her husband Rodney.
The couple has already accumulated more than $50,000 in medical bills with additional expenses sure to come. That fact has prompted several residents to establish the “Help Your Neighbor Benefit” in hopes of raising funds to assist with those medical costs.
The benefit is scheduled to run from 4 to 8 p.m. July 26 at the Jamestown Park and also at Cochran’s Catering. Organizers say that they have selected a bluegrass music theme and that a number of local bluegrass bands have already volunteered to play at the benefit.
Additional activities will include a cakewalk, face painting, hillbilly golf, raffle drawings, a silent auction, professional haircuts and a bake sale.
Motorcycle enthusiasts are invited to participate in a ride in Cochran’s honor, which will depart at about 1 p.m. that day. A $20 donation is requested of those participating in the ride.
“This started out as a ham and beans and cornbread thing and then the word got out and everything’s been getting bigger from there,” co-organizer Brenda McKinney said. “The response has just been great and we want people to know that this is going to be a family event with something for everybody.”
Dennis and Janet Halford are in charge of organizing the motorcycle ride and have been family friends of the Cochrans for as long as they can remember.
“Betty’s always been a nice, quiet person — kind of behind the scenes,” Janet Halford said. “They did both of our daughters’ weddings and they’re just great people. It’s one of those things where our daughters went to school together and now our granddaughters go to school together.”
Those who are unable to attend the benefit but would still like to assist the Cochran family are invited to do so by directing their donations to The Betty Cochran Benefit Fund at the State Bank of Lizton, P.O. Box 153, Jamestown, IN 46147.
“We’re asking for free-will donations, so if you can afford $5, then we want $5,” McKinney said. “If you can afford $50, then we would like $50.”
Family members say they are humbled by the community support that they have received and that Cochran is making progress in her recovery.
“She’s doing really well and God is playing a huge role in this,” Cochran’s daughter Beth Stokes said.
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