By Tim Evans
Index reporter
A special community benefit for a young West Liberty mother who is suffering from a rare form of kidney cancer will be held the evening of Saturday, Aug. 10, at the Muscatine County Fairgrounds Activity Center in West Liberty.
Jill Wachs-Paul is the subject of the benefit, which will include a pulled pork dinner, silent and live auctions, benefit drawings, a pie auction and capped by a DJ dance. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. with the dinner.
It’s all being put together by Jill’s long-time close friend, Aleasha Smock, Smock's boyfriend Jerry Kruse, and Jill’s parents, Bill and Edie Wachs, who decided to create the benefit following Jill’s most recent surgery that narrowed her health to half-a-kidney.
Although the couple does have health insurance, time from work for surgeries and chemotherapy treatments have cut into their personal income, and Smock is hoping to raise thousands of dollars to help the family out, including husband Ryne, a machine operator for Corridor Construction of Cedar Rapids, and their nearly two-year-old daughter, Iylah.
“Jill deserves to get through this and be healthy again,” said a tearful Smock. “That’s all I want for her,” calling Jill, “one of the strongest and best people I know.”
She described Jill as a “team player,” always doing things for other people, especially in operating her own day care business, and Smock said she’s simply “blessed to be able to be part of her life.”
The two have been best friends since their high school days about two decades earlier, with Smock saying she’s been fortunate to have leave time in her job to be able to go to surgeries and treatments since Jill’s Wilms tumor reoccurred just more than a year ago. Jill had gone through the whole ordeal once as a one-year-old, including chemotherapy, and was fine until doctors discovered the tumors had returned.
Smock says there are a lot of relatives and friends who have been and will be involved during the night of the benefit but those who have been instrumental in helping set it up include the team of Jill’s aunt Terri Wachs, friend Sheri Reinhardt, Smock’s mom Charli Jeurgens, friend Mariah Marshall and friend Makayla Kellor.
Jeurgens is setting up the dinner, which involves cooking 125 pounds of pork butt for sandwiches. Smock said it’s difficult planning such a benefit, where she knows at least 100 will attend, but said the team is planning on serving between 300-400 dinners which will include choices of four side dishes, all for a free-will donation.
She said people could also donate desserts for the event and pies or cakes for a special auction, which Smock said would include an “awesome alcohol induced apple favorite.”
The group has gathered 50-60 items for the silent auction and another 20-25 items for a live auction, Smock complimenting local businesses, friends and individuals for their support as well as Donovan Yoder’s auction services.
Bob Schmidt, “Mr. Good Time DJ Services” of Atalissa is donating their services for the event as well, to begin following the auction. There will also be a cash bar provided by the Muscatine County Fair Board, which has donated the facility for the event.
Jill’s story starts at the age of one, when she had her first year checkup, only to discover her parents' worst nightmare, getting diagnosed with Wilms tumors, a rare kidney cancer that typically affects children. Even more rare, she had bilateral Wilms tumors, including one on each kidney.
Coined inoperable, Jill would get a Hickman line and undergo 18 months of chemotherapy. Living with her mom, Edie, for over a year at University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, Jill would eventually be designated cancer free. She would continue to get clear scans for the next 15 years and at 18, she was finally done.
She would graduate from West Liberty High School and go on to live a normal life including buying a home and marrying the love of her life after the two joined about five years after high school.
Two years ago, the couple had Iylah and Jill began to notice beginning symptoms of Wilms returning, including pain in her right side, a lump and high blood pressure.
In November 2023, she was once again diagnosed with having bilateral Wilms, a rarity to reoccur after three decades. After scans and two separate biopsies on both sides of the new year, a right tumor was wrapped up closely to the kidney structure, presenting all kinds of questions.
A team of 55 doctors and staff members put together a plan of action and by February, Jill had a port installed and started chemotherapy and medicines, eventually losing her hair, which she finished off in March with a freshly shaved head.
On May 14, surgery was done to remove the left tumor as well as about half her left kidney. After surviving that ordeal, it was just nine weeks later when doctors removed a right tumor and the entire right kidney. Continuing to recover at home, Smock says the next few months are critical in deciding Jill’s next steps.
Smock knows her friend and family has been through a lot and says now it’s the time for the community to come together to help like they did 30 years ago in a benefit at the West Liberty bowling alley for Jill and her parents.
Anyone with questions about the benefit can call Smock at 39-471-3305 or e-mail her at jillsbenefit@gmail.com
Anyone wishing to donate or unable to make it to the benefit, may donate to a special account at MidwestOne Bank in West Liberty.