Salute to Everyone in Manitowoc invites the public to come down this holiday weekend and help a young woman fight the battle of a lifetime.
29-year-old Megan Landsberg has been battling cancer, and the local establishment will be holding a fundraiser Saturday to help her and her family pay staggering medical bills and future expenses in the continuing fight to beat this disease.
Derek Falber, the owner of Salute to Everyone, explained, “We’re going to have a benefit for her with 50/50 raffles, live music, lots of food, including walking tacos; it’s going to be a great time to help out a great person and her family.”
Falber told SeehaferNews.com that he came to know Megan about a year and a half ago, “as we helped promote Johnny C’s music. Johnny and Megan were friends, and then she would come to Salute to Everyone, when healthy, and we just hit it off and have become great friends.”
A few months ago, Megan was at The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for treatment of her multiple sclerosis that she’s had for years.
A scan revealed a tumor in her pancreas, and a biopsy confirmed she had stage two pancreatic cancer. The tumor is inoperable, and doctors are attacking it with chemo and radiation.
Falber says it’s just heartbreaking.
Cancer affects one out of two families in the United States and takes not only a physical, but maybe even more so, an emotional toll on all involved.
When Falber told his friend what he planned to do for her, he said Megan’s spirits perked up and added that she was very thankful for all they were doing for her.
“It helped her a lot because, to be quite honest, she gets sad from time to time thinking about it all,” he noted. “But to her credit, she’s taking this battle head-on with a positive attitude, with the mindset that she’s going to beat it (cancer) and live a productive life. I give her all the credit because there’s no other way to look at it other than fighting with everything you’ve got, and when you can’t let others fight for you.”
Falber has hosted many of these events, saying he learned to “pay it forward” from his father at a very young age.
“It boils down to ‘would others do it for you?’,” he said. “I’ve recently been through two complicated knee surgeries, and people were there to help me out. Maybe you don’t know her (Megan), but someday you might, and who knows, you may need her or someone else to help you out. Helping others is the greatest gift one can give another, and this is the way that Manitowoc is.”
The fundraiser begins at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday at Salute to Everyone, located at 1107 South 10th Street.
For more information, visit the Salute to Everyone Facebook page.
