A few of Connie Angel's friends are throwing a medical benefit chili feed at the Sidney Elks Lodge, on Oct. 28 to help her with medical expenses for her much-needed kidney transplant and resulting extended stay in the Bismarck hospital. (Photo by Jaymi Mozeak).
(Updated 10-19-23) Connie Angel is the last of 10 children left in Sidney, not the last Angel child alive. The original story has been edited to reflect this change.
(Original story) The Connie Angel Benefit, a fundraiser to help with medical expenses for a kidney transplant and extended stay in Bismarck for after transplant care, will be held Saturday, Oct. 28 at the Sidney Elks Lodge.
The event begins at 5:30 p.m. and continues into the night with chili and cinnamon rolls being served for a free will donation. There will be a silent auction, live auction, and specialty dessert auction, as well as a gun raffle drawing.
Angel was born and raised in Sidney and is the last of 10 children to remain there. She worked at Richland Saddlery when she was in high school and in the Richland Nursing Home, later renamed the Extended Care Facility. Angel continued working in healthcare and, after 42 years at the Sidney Health Center, she retired in 2020. Somewhere in her journey, Angel began to have problems with her kidneys and in 2013 she was diagnosed with kidney failure. A decade later and she is now in stage 5 kidney failure. Angel was going to a nephrologist in Miles City, and then she did telemedicine appointments with one, a Dr. Heather McGuire, in Billings. McGuire was the one who brought up a kidney transplant. While in the hospital in 2021 for a different procedure, Angel was told that she could have a spot on one of only seven dialysis chairs in Williston. She started in March 2022 and now sees Dr. Ayesh, Bismarck. Angel said, "I consider this a blessing because it has made me more mindful of my health and mindful of the health of others."
Angel can no longer drive long distances so, three times a week, one of the 21 friends who signed up to drive her to dialysis takes her for her appointment. She said, "God has blessed me with a lot of good people in my life." "I am eternally grateful to my friends who are putting on this benefit to help me financially."
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