Local Youth Athletic Coach Battles Rare Form of Cancer

A benefit will be held in early March for a volunteer coach for children’s athletic teams in McHenry County who is battling a rare form of cancer.

Travis Walters, 41, of Wonder Lake was first diagnosed with thyroid cancerin 2012, the Northwest Herald reports. Walters grew up in Harvard and was a star athlete at Harvard High School, Walter’s mother-in-law, Mary Klein, told the newspaper.

In the past four years, Walters has undergone surgeries to remove his thyroid, jugular vein and a blood clot on his lung. His cancer has spread to his lungs and is now in stage 4, according to a flyer for his fund-raising benefit. Walters has been traveling to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for treatment of the rare and aggressive form of cancer.

A benefit to help raise money for the local man will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on March 5 at McHenry Athletic Center, 1310 Ridgefield Road in Crystal Lake. The benefit will include a pizza dinner, raffle prizes, silent auction and “basketball court fun for the whole family.” Tickets will be sold at the door only. Dinner will be $12 for adults and children 6 to 12 years old are $10. Children 6 years old and younger are free.

A GoFundMe page has also been set up to collect donations for the Walters family as the “costs keep growing between the lost time at work and his traveling expenses to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.” So far, just under $2,000 has been raised.

As he has battled the cancer, Walters has kept pretty quiet about his struggles. But, his friends and families, after learning of his situation, decided they wanted to set up the benefit to help, Klein told the Northwest Herald.

“He’s the type of person who wouldn’t talk about his illness to others, and he never whined about it or anything,” Klein said. “So someone eventually found out about it, spread the word, and that’s how a benefit came about.”

Walters is married to his wife, Rachel, and the couple has two children, Brooklyn, 4, and Ben, 8.

Donations can also be mailed to Benefit for Travis Walters, P.O. Box 291, Wonder Lake, IL 60097.

For more information, contact Klein at 262-215-4535.

Photo via the Travis Walters Cancer Benefit Facebook page