Coworker Creates GoFundMe For Town Employee With Stage 4 Cancer

BRANFORD, CT — In her GoFundMe appeal, Sharon Heslin, the town's recycling administrative assistant, she notes that her "coworker and friend, Pat Montana," who works at the Transfer Station, was recently diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

Heslin said that in addition, he has "17 tumorous lesions in his brain as well as his liver and kidney." She added that Montana underwent several hours of "radiation on his brain and started chemotherapy last week."

In the GoFundMe, she wrote that Montana initially "didn’t want to ask for help."

"Asking for financial support isn’t always easy, he isn’t asking for help, he didn’t want to ask for help, but I told him, 'remember that your friends and family members want to help you during this time.'"

She said he and his family "weren’t financially prepared for any of this."

"No one is," she wrote, adding, "Or the costs they’d encounter at every turn, and soon realized they did need extra help."

Heslin said Montana has "signed his papers to retire, and applied for Social Security Disability, but it’s going to take several months before he sees any checks."

"These unexpected costs on top of his monthly bills with no income is causing more stress," she said.

Created three days ago, the GoFundMe appeal, which can be visited here, has raised around $3,000.

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