Two-time cancer survivor takes aim at Relay

To say Jerry Madill is a fighter is like saying Muhammad Ali liked to skip rope. Fast.

They are both fighters.

Madill, 71, is a two-time cancer survivor, being first diagnosed in 2006.

“I almost made it six years, just short of that,” Madill said Wednesday from his home on Farm to Market Road. “They say, if you can make it that long you got a chance at beating it for good.”

That didn’t happen.

After a stage IV diagnosis of colorectal cancer in 2006, Madill had his colon, rectum and anus removed and then underwent chemotherapy.

“He was in a bad way,” said Ginny, Madill’s wife of 28 years. “They say chemo will take you to death’s door, and Jerry was there.”

However, that’s when the former Fairfield police officer showed his true colors.

“You’ve got to rise above it, or it will take you down,” Madill said. “I wasn’t going to let it win.”

Madill won that battle, but cancer returned in 2011, and this time it attacked his aorta and his lungs. A biopsy revealed it was the dormant colorectal cancer that had been found by Dr. Lance Ercanbrack nearly six years before.

“It completely changed our lives,” Ginny said. “He used to take care of me, and now I was taking care of him.”

It was Ginny’s care and the promise of dates he would keep with his granddaughter that got Madill through it.

“It’s because of family and our granddaughter, Jalynn,” Ginny admitted. “It just broke (granddaughter) Jalynn’s heart to think she might lose her grandfather. He kept promising her, light events in the not too distant future.”

One of those events was hunting with Jalynn when she took her first deer.

“I promised her I’d be there for that, and I kept my promise,” Madill said.

Jalynn made a promise to her grandfather, too.

“I told him I’d be there for all the Relays for Life,” said Jalynn on Wednesday night from Spokane. “He’s a pretty great grandfather. I wouldn’t miss it.”

Madill can no longer walk the track that he and Jalynn will take to. Still, they’ll be there as they circle the track in a golf cart, fulfilling Jalynn’s pledges.

“She’s pretty amazing,” Ginny said. “She’s raised about $2,000 by herself in the name of Jerry. She vows she’s going to help find a cure for cancer.”

Jalynn, who works for the Inland Northwest Blood Center in Spokane, concurred.

“I hope we do find a cure. If not in my grandpa’s lifetime, in mine.”

The Lincoln County Relay for Life kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday at the Libby High School track. For more information, contact Star Phillips at 291-5925.