Help Ease the Burden for Will Connelley's Family

My name is Linda A. Williams. Until I retired a few years ago, I was a market gardener, growing organic vegetables, herbs and flowers for our local community Farmer's Market.

I have developed this page in the hope that it will help to ease the financial burden on the family of my step-grandson, William Ray Connelley. In 2022, when he was 22 years old, Will was diagnosed with Dedifferentiated Parosteal Osteosarcoma of the right femur at the knee.

Surgery was performed, a titanium knee joint was installed, and Will began undergoing chemotherapy, which was completed on December 31, 2022. However, a PET scan several months later showed that the cancer has moved to his lungs, and while there are clinical trials ongoing, this cancer has no known successful treatments. Additionally, the knee replacement has failed, and because Will's health has deteriorated to a point that additional surgery is not an option, he is confined to a wheelchair.

Until this nightmare began, Will was a regular young man; he graduated from Marion (Illinois) High School with the class of 2017, and then worked as a Detailer at Black Diamond RV in Marion. At the time of his diagnosis, he was working at Intertape Polymer Corporation in Carbondale, Illinois. Currently he is living at his family home with his parents, Curtis (my son) and Leva Brown, and his sister, Ashlyn.

In order to balance the burden of taking time off from their jobs, his parents took turns throughout Will's treatments to drive him to the hospital in St. Louis; staying in hotels whenever necessary in order to be available to him during this emotionally difficult time. Now, the hospital trips are made in order to monitor Will's condition and to make him as comfortable as possible.

My heart is breaking for Will. He is such a nice, good-hearted young man and he has endured so much in his young life. His parents can provide him with the emotional and physical support that he needs, but the financial aspect of his situation is now growing beyond their reach. Will has insurance to help pay for his hospitalizations and treatments, but his parents have had to use credit cards to help cover the costs of transportation, hotel rooms, and meals necessary during his illness, and this option has now begun to close for them.

I can send Will and his family all of the healing thoughts and love that I have for them, but I am not in a position to help them financially. And so, I am reaching out to you, with the hope that you can help to ease the stress that they are undergoing in this time that they have together.

Thank you. -linda W.