Making memories
Aug. 31 benefit for Shelburne County man planned
A benefit is planned for a Shelburne County family.
At 45 years old, William Nickerson has spent much of his life helping others. Now it is the community’s time to help him.
Nickerson was diagnosed in October 2015 with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
There was hope that chemotherapy treatments would help eradicate the cancer and he had a stem cell treatment in January of 2017. Neither was successful.
“We’re taking it one day at a time,” said his wife Nikki Nickerson. “He did get bad news. He’s taking chemo in hopes it’ll buy him more time and get months instead of weeks.”
On Aug. 31 there will be a Dutch auction to help the family from 1 to 8 p.m. at the Shelburne Community Centre.
One of the organizers of the fundraiser, Jodi Ybarra, said they only started planning a
few weeks before the event and have received an overwhelming response of donations for the auction.
“We have gotten a lot of great support so far,” said Ybarra. “For a small town it never ceases to amaze me the amount of support they give.”
She says they hope to raise enough money to allow Nickerson to make the most of the time he has left.
“It’s about making memories,” said Ybarra.
The family wants to make as many memories as they can before they have to say goodbye.
“We are booking a trip to St. John’s, Newfoundland, with our family,” said Nikki Nickerson. “When we got the bad news, we knew we had to make it happen.”
Already a generous donation has been made to cover the expenses for the trip.
William Nickerson was a volun- teer firefighter for the Shelburne fire department for 17 years. He owned his own diving company and has worked as facilities support lead at the Nova Scotia Community College.