When Roxanne Wildes of Rockdale discovered she had Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in summer 2002, she didn’t know how she was going to pay for her treatments.
But then the Cambridge and Deerfield communities mobilized. Family and strangers alike threw fundraising parties at Nora’s II and Rockdale Bar. Teachers organized class donation drives in the schools. Cambridge Community Hope, a nonprofit active at the time helping local families, collected donations.
Now, Wildes is in remission. And on Feb. 11, 2023, Wildes celebrated her 20th anniversary of being cancer free.
Wildes said she wouldn’t have survived the illness, or hit her 20th year of remission, without the support of the local community.
“When this day came along, I had to say thank you, because I wouldn’t have made it without them,” Wildes said in an interview.
Roxanne Wildes
Rockdale native, Lake Mills resident, cancer survivor
“Because of them, I am 20 years older,” Wildes wrote in a thank you letter to the community. “Thank you to everyone for all your care, concern, cards, letters, phone calls, flowers, food, donations and prayers. I would not be here without all of you. You saved me from that dark tunnel.”
The diagnosis
Wildes was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system, on Aug. 29, 2002. In July 2002, she had discovered two lumps below her left ear.
She began treatment on Sept. 13, 2002, and describes the experience of her first chemotherapy session as strange.
“I watched it come out of the bag down into my hand, and it was so wild. It was one beat of my heart, and I felt it just shoot through my body. It was a very strange experience. But right away, I could taste it. I could smell it. I could feel it,” Wildes said.
That night, she recalled being plagued by nightmares of a demon.
“And he kept coming and grabbing me, pulling me out of my bed across my bedroom floor, (he) tried to get me, pushed me out my window. Oh my God, it was so real,” Wildes said. “I think it was the devil trying to see if I was going to be strong enough to see if I could beat this or not.”
After receiving several bouts of chemo, Wildes said doctors discovered her cancer was worsening, and required more aggressive treatment. They prescribed six-hour intensive chemotherapy.
Each chemo session of the more aggressive regime cost around $40,000, Wildes said, and as a self-employed business woman, Wildes didn’t have insurance.
That’s when Community Hope, a Cambridge non-profit active in the early 2000’s that offered school district residents short-term help, got involved.
Community support
Wildes grew up in Rockdale and graduated from Cambridge High School. She was a cheerleader, and said many people in town may have known her because she was always riding her bike.
Madison County performed at a benefit for Wildes in early 2003.
Community Hope organized a benefit concert for her cancer fight at Nora’s II. Madison County performed for free. Bartenders worked only for tips. Cars filled up the corn field across the street, because of overflow crowds. The place was packed.
Wildes called the support “overwhelming.”
“All out of the kindness and goodness of their hearts,” she wrote. “How can I say thank you enough?”
The efforts continued. Rockdale Bar threw a pig roast and luau benefit for Wildes. Community Hope collected donations from as far as Texas and Oregon, and as near as Deerfield, Fort Atkinson, McFarland and Lake Mills. Local businesses collected donations through an “Open Your Heart” campaign. A Lake Mills hairdresser gave her a free short haircut.
Perhaps most moving for Wildes was the collection of $501.80 by Cambridge Elementary School students. Wildes said that students from Mrs. Jeffrey’s, Mrs. Stellmacher’s and Miss Verberg’s classes had decided not to buy each other holiday gifts, and instead donate to Wildes’ cancer treatment. They even walked to the Cambridge State Bank on Dec. 20 to deposit the check themselves.
Pictured above are Cambridge Elementary School students who donated to Wildes’ treatment.
And, they wrote messages to Wildes, making a book of decorations and notes of wellness and hope.
“When these kids did this for me, I lost it,” Wildes recalled.
“Do they remember the wonderful things they did for me? Maybe not, but I will forever remember them,” Wildes added in the letter.
20 years later
Wildes was officially declared in remission in February 2003. She said that for her type of cancer, 20 years was the longest stint of remission her doctor had heard of, and it became her goal.
On Feb. 11, 2023, she hit her goal. And Wildes said Madison County, the band that played her Nora’s II benefit 20 years ago, was performing on Feb. 11, which she saw as a sign.
“So I’ve been in remission the last 20 years. It hasn’t been all smooth sailing. It’s been bumpy. But (those years) wouldn’t have even been there if these people hadn’t saved my life,” Wildes said. “And save my life they did. They saved it. The cancer was coming back so quickly and so aggressively that I asked my doctor at the time if I hadn’t had the chemo, that the aggressive kind of chemo, how long would I have had? And he said two months.”
“It’s all because of the generosity of hundreds of people, that I was able to beat the demon that is cancer. I thank you all so very very much,” Wildes writes in her letter.
