Billy’s Last Wish

Dear Friends and Family,

It’s never easy asking for help, but I’m reaching out to you on behalf of William (a.k.a Billy) Degel. At the end of November,, Billy was having some GI issues, so he went to the doctor. The doctor found that his hemoglobin was low, and he was anemic, so she set up a colonoscopy and endoscopy. While they were completing these tests, they saw irregularities in his esophagus, stomach, and colon. They were able to take some samples to be tested to determine if it was cancerous. On that same day they sent Billy to get a CT scan to look at his chest, stomach, and abdomen. After meeting with an Oncologist, Billy and his wife Jess were informed that he has Stage 4 metastatic stomach cancer (Metastatic Gastroesophageal Adenocarcinoma).

Billy will be doing rounds of chemotherapy every three weeks in hopes of prolonging his life, but the doctors will unfortunately not be able to cure it. This is devastating news for the family as Billy just fought this fight in 2016, when he beat testicular cancer. We are hoping that with his limited time left, Billy will be able to focus on quality time with his wife Jess and their 14-year-old daughter Aubree. His only concern since the diagnosis has been for their future and knowing that his beautiful family is cared for. He's worried about how they will survive without him financially and emotionally.

Bill is a graduate from Johnson High School, class of 88’. (Go Govies)! He is devoted to watching his beloved daughter play hockey for the JV varsity/ varsity hockey team for White Bear Lake. (Go Bears)!

Billy carry's the medical insurance for his family and has been holding both a full-time and part-time job for fourteen years. Due to Billy being so fatigued, anemic, unable to sleep, and barely eating, he has already had to go on a leave of absence from his part-time job. Billy's wife Jess also works a part-time job at the school, and plans on looking for a full-time job but as you can imagine, she is already overwhelmed with processing everything from the last few weeks. Looking for ways to juggle all the upcoming doctor visits and their daughter’s hockey.

For those of you who don't know the family, their daughter Aubree eats, breathes, and sleeps hockey. Bill and Jess both have expressed their desires to try to maintain normalcy for Aubree. To get some relief or distraction from what is going on in the rest of her life with trying to spend as much time with her dad, and eventually processing losing her Daddy as a 14-year-old girl.

Therefore, we are reaching out for help for the Degel family. We are hoping that with your support we will be able to make Billy's last wish come true... the wish that his family will be taken care of financially, so that their only obstacle after he is forced to leave them is healing from the loss of a father and husband. Any raised funds will be used to pay medical bills and everyday expenses. It's uncertain how long he'll be able to continue to work his full-time job.

Any amount will be greatly appreciated by the family and especially by Billy. Regardless of financial ability, we ask that you consider helping by spreading the word and sharing this if you cannot help with a monetary donation. We also believe that encouraging notes or memories about how knowing Billy has positively affected your life would help raise their spirits.

Here are a few ways you can help support the Degel family in this time of need.

Meal Train: https://mealtrain.com/d8v2g4 Contact person is Jennifer Stein (Cousin) at [email redacted]

Go Fund Me (Billy’s Last Wish): Contact person is Katie Matschke (Jess’s Best Friend) at [email redacted]

We will continue to keep you all updated as we continue to learn more.

We appreciate anything you can do to help.