A local community is coming together to help a first responder who had some life-changing news of his own.
EMTs in Philipsburg are planning a fundraiser to help the first responder.
This as he waits to learn more about a tumor he says is located in an “inoperable” part of his brain.
We have more on the man used to helping others who’s now getting some help of his own.
Fellow EMTs are organizing a boot drive to benefit one of their own who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor.
You’ll often find Billy Narehood with an ambulance, as we did last summer.
Billy says he knows the world of hospitals well since his sister donated a kidney to him, and he had a pancreas transplant, a result of the Type 1 diabetes he’s battled since childhood.
Recently, he’s had more trouble.
“He wasn’t responding appropriately, went down, found out it wasn’t his sugar, so he was transported to the hospital, so the hospital ran a bunch of tests,” says Moshannon Valley EMS co-director Shelly Tormey.
Billy, 40, says a CAT scan in State college found a tumor in his right frontal lobe on Mar. 10. He’s set for another appointment in Pittsburgh this week.
“We’re all worried about him and we’re hoping that everything goes well,” says Tormey.
“He’s a very dedicated young man and we all feel for him and he’s a great guy to work for and we just want to help him out any way we can,” says EMS manager Wes Cartwright.
Tormey says the EMS board approved collecting donations with help from firefighters at all major intersections in town.
“To try to help him financially, because I know he’s missed a lot of work,” says Cartwright.
“We talked to Billy before we set the boot drive up to make sure he would accept the funds, because Billy’s a very humble and private individual,” says Tormey.
Tormey says family members have been traveling to Pittsburgh to help Narehood, a part-time Moshannon Valley EMT for the past couple years who’s also a longtime volunteer EMT and fireman in Karthaus.
“He’s very good with patients and does anything he can to help any of us,” says Tormey.
The boot drive is set for Saturday, April 2 from 8 a.m. to noon at various intersections in Philipsburg.
