Community support buoys Edwards’ spirit
By Jerry W. Kram
While Ty Edwards was battling on the hardwood at the 4 Bears Event Center in the Region 8 Boys Basketball Tournament, his mother Gretchen was fighting her own battle with ovarian cancer with the support of her husband Ron. All of them found their battle just a bit easier because of the support offered by their friends and neighbors in Plaza and the surrounding area.
Gretchen said she had avoided going to the doctor for her regular checkup for some time. Ron and some of her friends hounded her until she agreed to go in for an appointment.
“They said ‘You need to take care of yourself,’” Gretchen said. “They didn’t find anything, but my doctor said I should get an ultrasound because he didn’t know if something was actually there. So I had an ultrasound in September and they found an ovarian mass.”
Blood tests indicated that the mass was likely to be cancerous, so Gretchen was scheduled for surgery.
