The support of a cause

The Lyle Area Cancer Auction is usually loud and bustling, with people chatting, auctioneers taking bids and volunteers yelling out when people bid, but the crowd in the Lyle Maintenance Building turned silent quickly Friday night to listen when Dave Yerhart took the mic.

“I’ll tell you what, cancer sucks,” Dave said to cheers of agreement. “Big time.”

Dave, a long time Lyle Area Cancer volunteer and board member, is battling stage three cancer. He was diagnosed in November with hypothyroidism and a recurrent brain tumor, which doctors say is malignant and non-operable.

But he appeared on the LAC stage with wife, Keri, son, Nick and daughter, Alishya, during the auction on Friday, and Dave said he’s happy to have a strong support system with his family and the LAC community.

“This is the best support system I’ve ever had,” he said.

The Yerharts have been involved with Lyle Area Cancer for about nine years, and they live a few miles north of Lyle. They run Cans for Cancer, which collects recycled cans in a few locations in Austin and Lyle and then gives the proceeds from reselling the cans to LAC.

Cans for Cancer pledged more than $1,300 to LAC Friday night.

The Yerharts also work in the kitchen during the auction each year.

At first, their volunteer slot in the kitchen was up in the air this year. Originally, the Yerharts weren’t scheduled in, but Dave went to and LAC meeting insisting they get their spot.

“There was no question about that,” Dave said.

This Dave’s second bout with cancer. In 2002, he suffered a grand mal seizure on a plane en route to California. He was found to have a brain tumor the size of a grapefruit. He returned home to Austin and had the surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

No further treatment was recommended, and he underwent routine MRIs until 2006, when everything looked normal. But last November, Keri noticed something wasn’t right with Dave, so they went to the doctor for an MRI and found another tumor.

LAC volunteer Roe Naylor said he’s known the Yerharts for a long time, and he said it “just plain sucks” to see what the family is going through, noting cancer affects the entire family.

“That’s why we’re here doing this,” he said of the auction.

LAC co-chair Larry Ricke compared watching the Yerharts battle cancer to watching fellow LAC member Tracy Schilling’s battle with cancer a few years ago.

“It hurts,” he said. “It hurts real bad. You give them support and be there when they need somebody. It’s tough.”

From his experience with Schilling and others battling cancer, they don’t want people talking about them; they want people to talk to them.

“Don’t be afraid, just talk to them,” he said. “They’re there. They’ve already gotten the bad news, now talk to them. We might learn something from them.”

Dave referenced Schilling to the crowd, saying he knows where she got her common saying of “awesome” from: Mayo Clinic, as he praised the staff and people there.

The Yerharts have seen other loved ones battle cancer too. Keri’s mom previously battled breast cancer, and Dave’s stepdad also has cancer and was recently given weeks to live.

But Keri admits their own battle with cancer casts their efforts fighting cancer in a new light.

“We’ve seen other people battle, and we’ve always tried to raise money for them, but it just seems like it has more of a purpose,” Keri said. “It hits closer to home than it did before.”

Still, the family is happy to have the friends with LAC helping them.

“It’s a family, so immediately everybody has reached out to us, offered us support,” Keri said. ”I mean, we couldn’t ask for more from them. They are just wonderful.”

A benefit is planned for Dave and his family on March 11 at the Austin Eagles Club.