Fullerton : Police Raise Funds for Retired Officer’s Surgery
Police officers have raised $24,000 toward an operation for a retired colleague who has lung and liver cancer. His only chance for survival may be costly bone-marrow surgery.
Former Police Sgt. Bobby Kelley, who retired in 1980 after 23 years with the Fullerton force, was described as a “gutsy fighter” by Fullerton Capt. Richard Kvancz, spokesman for the Kelley Fund Committee. Kvancz said the committee hopes to raise $100,000 for the surgery.
Kelley said he was “floored” after hearing that the fund committee had been created. “I didn’t have the words to express my appreciation,” Kelley said from his Lake Isabella home east of Bakersfield. “When you’ve been in law enforcement as long as I was, these guys become as close to you as your own family.”
Kelley said that his cancer has not responded to radiation and chemotherapy and that his doctor thinks marrow transplant surgery may be his last treatment option.
His insurance company, he said, would probably consider the surgery experimental and not pay for it. “They have only covered two or three other cases like this before,” he said.
Donations to the Kelley Fund can be sent to Fullerton Savings & Loan, 200 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton, Calif. 92632.
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