Beating cancer once was difficult enough for Mattapoisett resident William Huggins. After an exhausting battle with Colon Cancer a few years ago, Huggins thought he was in the clear after receiving clean scans. However, just a couple years later, he received news that the cancer had metastasized to his liver. Now, he continues to fight against the disease with the help of very supportive friends and family.
“He just finished his chemotherapy on Friday, so now they have to wait and see,” said Julie Sherman, who has been friends with the Huggins family for about 10 years. “I think there is a lot of worry there. There are worries that the scans are coming up next month. There is always a mental hindrance.”
Anyone who knows Will knows that his family, friends and business are of the utmost importance to him. He owns Form Custom Building in Renovation in Mattapoisett, where he was able to practice his love of carpentry before getting sick. Due to the various procedures and treatments he has undergone to defeat this bout of cancer, he has been out of work since the summer, only recently returning to work in the past few weeks.
With the daunting task of paying for medical treatments and trips to and from Boston, that’s when the community stepped in to help the family in need. Friends of the family, including Sherman, decided to sell bracelets in order to raise money for Will. Sherman and Will’s wife Michelle used to make jewelry together, so they designed a wooden-bead bracelet with the saying “I Will” to sell for their fundraising efforts.
“It was a friend of Michelle’s named Desmond who saw Michelle one day and saw that she was very stressed out,” said Sherman. “Desmond said, ‘Michelle, don’t worry about him. He will be fine. His name isn’t Will for nothing.’ We just kind of stuck with that.”
Initially, the women, with the help of their friends Cindy Pemberton, Kellie Hornell-Crete and Hope Perkins, made 100 bracelets to be sold at local businesses for $10 apiece. But due to the popularity of the cause, the ladies have made 500 of them and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future to help the Huggins family with medical expenses.
“It just helps to reassure me that people are giving and have kind souls,” said Sherman. “It just feels good to know that people support this and are excited about it.”
Bracelets can be purchased at Mahoney’s, Isabelle’s, How on Earth, Sister’s Hair and Skin Care and Hangman Coffee Hut. For more information on the “I WILL” bracelets, visit www.facebook.com/iwillhuggins.
By Katy Fitzpatrick
