La Crosse event to raise money, awareness for lung cancer research

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — This is lung Cancer Awareness Month so an organization called “Living for Liz” will hold a special event this weekend to raise awareness and money to fight the disease.    

According to the American Cancer Society, Lung Cancer kills more people than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined.

La Crescent’s Maggie Smith is a lung cancer survivor. She is a non-smoker who was just diagnosed this past March.

Smith feels her quick diagnosis can be attributed to Liz Melde. She was a 25-year-old La Crosse woman, also a non-smoker, who died from lung cancer 4 years ago.

“We were thinking about her the whole time that we were going through this process and being diagnosed. And our doctors actually said, ‘so were we.’ And they knew her and they knew her story and they shared that they had also been thinking of her. We just felt that her story influenced my outcome and the care that I received. The compassion and how quickly we got results, all of those things,” said Smith.

She added that her prognosis is good and she is considered to be in remission.

The “Living for Liz” organization was founded in Liz Melde’s honor.

This weekend, that group has a fundraiser called “Bet on a Cure for Lung Cancer.”

It’s Saturday, Nov. 14th from 6-10 p.m. at Piggy’s in La Crosse.

All the money raised goes to cancer research and awareness.