Defeat GBM
Ben DuPree, Kelly DuPree (wearing hat), Brandy Stellingworth, Warren Wonka, and Blake Faucette
Photo by Jana E. Pye
Friends of Kelly DuPree gather to help fund research for brain cancer research
By Jana E. Pye, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
To look at Kelly DuPree, your first thought is “Wow, this lady is in great shape!” She is tall, lean, fit, eats really healthy food and glows from within. Little would anyone guess she has been diagnosed with stage four brain cancer.
Her friends in Hartsville gathered on Saturday afternoon for the Defeat GBM fundraiser to donate to the Medical University of South Carolina to help research the type of brain cancer she has, Glioblastoma (GBM), highly malignant tumors of the brain.
“I’m going to beat this,” Kelly told me on Saturday, as her family and friends geared up for a one-mile beer fun run. “There is no doubt about that. I am not leaving.”
DuPree and her husband, Warren Wonka, are a busy couple; in addition to raising two boys, they own horses and an active lifestyle.
“It all started with a headache,” said DuPree. She is an Echo/Vascular Sonographer, and felt pretty comfortable when she first sought out help from her physician. “I wasn’t afraid a bit when I first went in for testing. As soon as the results were found, of course, there were tears. Then I just said, okay, what’s next?”
DuPree knocked out the cancer, only for it to return. She is currently undergoing experimental treatment that – in layman’s terms – is injecting marine material into her bloodstream which she feels is already working.
“It’s pretty amazing, but for the first time – the headache is gone. Just, gone,” she said. “And I am hoping that when I go for my next appointment that will be confirmed that it’s working.”
DuPree has always eaten a healthy diet, but since the diagnosis she has been even more careful to choose organic produce when she can, and choose grass fed beef and organic chicken – her meals closely resemble the “Keto” or “Paleo” that many people are finding successful in their health choices.
“My husband suggested I go vegan,” she said. “But honestly, I don’t eat a lot of meat and when I do it’s good meat, so I am sticking to this.”
And to see her, one would have to agree it is working!
The Defeat GBM fundraiser was the brainchild of Brandy Stellingworth, owner of Retrofit-sip-n-sit in Hartsville; Ben DuPree, one of Kelly’s sons, works there and when Stellingworth offered to do a fundraiser Kelly insisted that it must go not to her, but to research to help others.
The late afternoon event featured plenty of family friendly activities food, beverages, music, pony rides by Narrow Way Ranch, a trailer rides, music, a photo booth by Funtography Moments by Deborah Doran and specially made candles by 50degrees Apothecary – all with donations given towards the fundraiser. Brandy Stellingworth shared the details with us after we went to press with the print version: “We raised about $4,500 and it’s being donated to MUSC for brain cancer research.”
The Fun Run took runners and walkers from Vista Park through downtown Hartsville. Mobile users, please click link to view photos of the event: Defeat GBM