NY man’s cancer walk takes a fateful turn in Aurora

New York
cancer
walk

Jim Hickey halts fundraiser due to his own diagnosis

  • Jim Hickey is shown here with 5-year-old Paishence Hansen of Cozad. Hickey was in the midst of walking from Scottsbluff to Omaha raising money and awareness for Hansen’s fight with cancer, when he learned during a stop in Aurora that he had been diagnosed with cancer himself.
    Jim Hickey is shown here with 5-year-old Paishence Hansen of Cozad. Hickey was in the midst of walking from Scottsbluff to Omaha raising money and awareness for Hansen’s fight with cancer, when he learned during a stop in Aurora that he had been diagnosed with cancer himself.

    A former Marine from New York hit a road block last week in Aurora in the midst of a 450-mile walk to raise money for a little girl from Cozad battling cancer.
    Jim Hickey has a soft spot in his heart for kids like Paishence Hansen, a 5-year-old who inspired his journey from Scottsbluff to Omaha. In fact, Hickey has been down this road many times before, having walked almost 9,000 miles over the past 20 years, all in an effort to raise money for people of all ages battling cancer.
    “I started out just walking across the country to raise awareness for cancer research in general,” Hickey recalled. “The more times I went through towns and saw donation cans or fliers for an event for a child, I just gravitated toward childhood cancer. The way I look at it when an adult gets cancer it’s tragic enough but at least they’ve had a chance to live some semblance of their lives. Whereas a child, like this little girl I’m walking for, she’s been battling cancer since she was 3. This is all she knows and that’s got to stop.”

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