Fundraiser held for Palms West ER nurse with cancer

Aug. 10--WELLINGTON -- Tori Williams, an emergency room nurse at Palms West Hospital since 2008, deals with firefighters and paramedics when they bring in car accident victims and others with injuries.

So when Williams, 38, a Jupiter resident, was diagnosed in June 27 with stage 4 collecting duct carcinoma, a rare kidney cancer, a group of area firefighters decided to come to her rescue with a fundraiser.

"This is awesome," Williams, a petite blonde, said Saturday at JoJo's Raw Bar and Grill in Wellington, where about 200 people gathered to raise money to offset her medical bills. She managed to attend the packed and noisy event with her husband ,Chris Williams, despite being in the midst of chemotherapy.

Tony Andrewson of Wellington, headed the chicken wing-eating contest, raffle and silent auction that raised more than $5,000.

Andrewson is a longtime member of the Palm Beach County FOOLS -- for Fraternal Order of Leatherheads Society --a non-profit organization established to help fellow firefighters and those in need in their communities.

"Many of the FOOLS have worked with Tori through the years and when we heard about her illness, we wanted to help," Andrewson said.

The messy wing-eating contest drew seven men and three women who stuffed themselves with as many sauce-slathered wings as they could in two-and-a-half minutes.

Brandon Bechler, of Loxahatchee, a firefighter, and Dr. Jake Chachkes, a Palms West E.R. physician who lives in Wellington, tied after devouring 13 wings each.

That made a "wing-off" necessary. Chachkes consumed three wings before Bechler did, and was awarded the winner's trophy. There were plenty of doctors, nurses and firefighters on hand but no one needed assistance, though Chachkes said "I definitely ate a bone."

While people laughed, talked, ate and drank, their love and concern for Williams is what led them to do their share, even some people who had never met her until Saturday.

Williams and her best friend Doria Wagoner of Tequesta, also an E.R. nurse at Palms West, want to raise awareness about another aspect of William's cancer. She has a Muir-Torre Syndrome, a form of Lynch syndrome. People with the hereditary syndrome have an increased risk of certain aggressive types of cancers.

She first went to the doctor because of back pain, but cancer wasn't looked at as the cause. Then Williams had a skin tag which was removed at Water's Edge Dermatology and turned out to contain cancer cells. She then underwent cancer screening and learned she had Muir-Torre and kidney cancer.

That Williams' family tree is filled with cancer victims started to make sense.

"Genetic testing for the syndrome is not ordered by doctors. Our insurance companies need to be held accountable," Wagoner said.

"If you find out you have the genetic markers, you can be proactive," Wagoner said. "As an E.R. nurse, it's distressing to see so many people diagnosed with cancer that could have been diagnosed earlier. You can change the longevity of generations."

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