WEST SENECA, N.Y. — Friends are pouring love and support on Billy Colern and his family. The Ironworkers general foreman for the new Buffalo Bills stadium is battling stage 4 lymphoma but refuses to let it impact him.
Billy Colern was first diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in February, and all the support from his friends and family has encouraged him to fight even harder.
Thursday, Billy’s friends held a fundraiser for him where hundreds of people purchased tickets and donated money to his family.
“The chemotherapy treatments, I’m a little more than halfway through now, my PET scan came back well,” Billy said. “I’m really hoping that I will be ringing a bell at Roswell Cancer Center at the end of this.”
Billy supports his wife and five kids by working as a Union Ironworker at the Buffalo Bills new Highmark Stadium construction site.
Despite grueling cancer treatments, Billy’s co-workers told 7 News earlier this week he hasn’t even missed a day a work.
Q: Are you trying to inspire people, because I think it’s working?
“Not really, that’s not the goal,” Billy said. “I just have some responsibilities as a father and a husband, and I want to keep them no matter what.”
His friends and family are in full support of helping him not just fight this battle but making sure he wins it.
“We just hope this alleviates any thought of any financial struggles going forward,” Billy’s cousin Melissa Dubel said. “If you ever met Billy, you would understand, Bill would give anybody anything and he doesn’t stop.”
“He’s so tough I think he will beat it,” Billy’s co-worker Bill Andrews said. “He has a family and five kids, he supports them [himself].”
“The list is pages long of the people we have to thank [for donations],” Billy’s co-worker Joe Donohoe said. “he’s just got such a strong character.”
“Maybe [with all the donations], he will actually try to take a little bit of a break here and this can help him relax a little,” Billy’s wife Heather Colern said. “He deserves to take a break and hopefully he will take that now. He can sit back and take it all in for a minute.”
