Holly Lake community holds benefit for fireman battling cancer

HOLLY LAKE RANCH, Texas (KLTV) - With all the issues people have to deal with now from the economy, to social issues, real life crisis sometimes gets lost in the mix.

One East Texas community came together today to help one of their own in his battle with cancer.

It was a simple benefit spaghetti meal that meant an awful lot to Holly Lake firefighter Doug Attaway. A gesture of support called ‘his fight is our fight’.

“We are fighting for this man, because this man has given so much of himself to our community,” said Holly Lake fire PIO Freida Jones.

A 15 year veteran of the Holly Lake volunteer fire department, Attaway was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in November.

“I’ve been a workhorse, strong. It’s something that you don’t really never want to hear. That you got a time limit on your life,” he says.

No silent auction, no gimmicks, it was a simple call to the public to come out and have a 10 dollar meal to help Attaway with the medical bills that will soon roll in.

For 7 hours people continued to file in to the Holly Lake fire department building, including firefighters from other departments.

“We started this thing at 11 o’clock and people were coming through the door before 11 o’clock. So yeah the community is behind us 110 percent,” said Holly Lake fire chief Bill Bolinger

“People started showing up and we’ve been going non-stop since. So overwhelming, because we are givers not takers,” Jones says.

Time runs out on all of us eventually. But this effort is in the hope that Attaways time can be extended.

“We’re going to fight just as long as we have to, to keep him here just as long as we can,” says Jones.

“I still got a lot to do,” Attaway says.

If you’d like to help the effort, you’re asked to contact the ‘Holly Lake’ volunteer fire department.

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