WAUNAKEE — On Sunday, Feb. 12, the Knights of Columbus and St. John the Baptist Parish in Waunakee will be hosting a Super Bowl Sunday tailgate fundraiser, titled “Fetters Family FUNdraiser”, starting at 4 p.m. The event will be held in the gym of St. John the Baptist School at 114 East 3rd St. and there is a suggested $50 entrance fee donation at the door.
The fundraiser is being held to financially assist the Fetters family after the wife of a fellow member of the Knights of Columbus in Waunakee fell ill with an aggressive form of cancer in 2022 that has left her a quadriplegic.
Dealing with the illness
In March of 2022, Dana Fetters, wife of Shane Fetters, began to experience numbness in her left hand and fingers as well as headaches.
“I was supposed to be having a total knee replacement in the middle of March, and Dana was going to be coming to help me during that time and spend a few days with us,” said Dana’s mother, Alice Peterson, who lives in Weston, Wis. “But she called and said, ‘I don’t think I can make it.’ As it turns out, that was the start of her cancer.”
When Dana began to notice a change in the way she walked, she sought out medical help from University Hospital in Madison.
“They ran tests [and] weren’t really sure what it was, gave her a couple different diagnoses,” said Dana’s sister Amy Lewis, who also lives in Waunakee.
She was given some steroids to treat the symptoms, but was in and out of the hospital two or three times after that.
“Symptoms progressively got worse,” said Lewis. “A new symptom just kind of popped up every time the steroids would wear off.”
She eventually went to Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, Minn., for a second opinion.
“They too were a little stumped,” said Lewis. “Their last resort was to check for lymphoma.”
By June, Dana was a quadriplegic.
“She couldn’t move or feel any sensation anywhere below her neck,” said Lewis.
“At some point of time, she did stop breathing — although her heart did not stop — so they intubated her,” said Dana’s mother, Alice. “She was very miserable because her only means of communication was talking, and now she had this tube in her mouth. That lasted about two weeks and then they finally pulled the tube out and put a trach in instead.”
Dana remained at Mayo Clinic Hospital for about eight months. For three of those months, family visitations were limited because of COVID restrictions. While Dana’s husband and children were able to visit her, her parents were only able to see her through video calls.
The Mayo Clinic eventually diagnosed her with B cell lymphoma of her central nervous system, a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
“[The Mayo Clinic had] seen B cell lymphoma, but never in the spinal cord or the brain stem,” said Alice Peterson.
At first, physicians were hopeful that starting chemotherapy would reverse the paralysis, but the damage to her spinal cord was too severe.
“They feel that the cancer had compressed her spinal cord so severely that it had caused permanent damage,” said Lewis. “She is now considered a spinal cord injury at this point. It doesn’t look like she’ll ever breathe on her own or move again. Of course, we’re all hoping for a miracle, but medically, it doesn’t look good.”
Her mother said that Dana is able to talk but that her “voice is very soft and she talks a lot slower than she used to.”
In terms of her life expectancy, her father Bob Peterson said, “We don’t have any idea how long she may live. She’s in a very delicate situation.”
Recently, she has come home, but she now requires full-time around the clock care that can get expensive.
Knights of Columbus step in
“We are talking in the tens of thousands of dollars that is going to be required to give her the additional care that is required,” said Knights of Columbus member, John Cullen, who has been organizing the fundraiser for the family. “It’s just something of the brotherhood of the Knights — to help out a fellow Knight. We wanted to see what we could do to assist the family.”
In the course of about six weeks, the Knights in Waunakee had decided on and planned out the Super Bowl FUNdraiser.
“We were just looking for some sort of event and we thought that [the Super Bowl] would be an opportunity to bring people together,” said Cullen.
The Super Bowl FUNdraiser will include a nacho bar, wings bar, brat bar, and a chili and hot dog bar.
“Of course, we will have the TV game broadcast on a large screen,” said Cullen. “We expect maybe two different ends of the gymnasium so that people can visibly see the game as it progresses. We will [also] have ongoing raffles throughout the day. There’s going to be lots of activity and camaraderie and socializing for those interested.”
In addition to the event, an online auction began on February 5 and will close at 6:30 p.m. on February 12. Items must be picked up at the event or at St. John School between February 13 and 14 during school hours.
To purchase tickets, make a monetary donation to the family, or to compete in the silent online auction, visit fettersfamilyfundraiser.com
“It just means the world to us [that the Knights of Columbus have organized this event],” said Lewis. “Our family has been very consumed with trying to help Dana and Shane with her care. Planning something like this is just not something that we could do on our own. I feel it just shows this absolute love and support from the community and from their church to help us with this.”