Billings Man Fights Cancer

Tools

By Sarah Gravlee

Story Published: Mar 24, 2011 at 7:18 PM MDT

Story Updated: Mar 25, 2011 at 7:54 AM MDT

BILLINGS - West High Spanish teacher Teresa Mountains and her son Ian are cleaning out her classroom. "I need to be there for Tommy," Teresa said, "The rest will work itself out."

Tommy, her 21-year-old son, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer when he was 19. Aggressive radiation cured it, but just weeks later the family got the news no one wants to hear. "For five to six weeks he was doing really well and then all of a sudden it was stage 4," Mountains said.

The cancer was found in his liver and bone marrow. Thomas received hours of chemo on Monday and was not up for an interview, but he speaks through his mother. "Thomas said to me, 'Mom it isn't about what you get in life, it's about what you give to others,'" Mountains said, fighting back tears, "That's Tommy."

"He can be quiet, but when he does speak it is powerful words of wisdom that hit you hard," his 22-year-old brother Ian said.

On Monday, Teresa and Tommy will head to Seattle in the hopes that he can get a cord blood transplant. It's a several-month stay with unknown costs. In the Spirit of Montana, dozens of people have come forward to host a fundraiser they're calling "Mountains of Hope". The event will have a live DJ, silent and live auctions, and a kids' carnival hosted by Teresa's students. She said the outpouring of support is humbling. "I was brought up to give and I was happy to give. It was hard to ask for help," she said, "I'm inundated by the wonderful people I'm surrounded by everyday."

Both Tommy and Ian are hoping to become doctors. Ian wants to be a trauma surgeon; Tommy wants to be an oncologist. That fundraiser is from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. Friday at the American Legion building on Broadwater Avenue. For more information, call Errin at 661-1415.

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

KULR-8 News, Sports, Weather and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

Your Weather Authority

Icon
Current Temp 82.0 °F
Thunderstorm
Wind : Southwest at
13.8 mph
Humidity : 16 %
Pressure : 29.75 in
More Weather

Party America Sky Cam

More Weather

On Demand

YouNews

This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.