PHOTO BY JOHN FRYMAN/ THE VILLAGE REPORTER
SURVIVOR OF THE YEAR … Dawn Goeltzenleuchter of Edgerton has been chosen as the Survivor of the Year for the upcoming Relay for Life of Williams County to be held on Saturday, June 13 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Williams County Courthouse Square in Bryan. Goeltzenleuchter currently is in remission for colon and cervical cancer.
By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
Dawn Goeltzenleuchter has supported the Williams County Relay for Life for many years after three of her own grandparents, along with her aunt and uncle, had passed away from cancer.
Having been longtime supporter of Williams County Relay for Life which takes place on Saturday, June 13 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Williams County Courthouse Square, the 56-year Edgerton resident who is currently battling cancer, has been named the Survivor of the Year highlighting this year’s event.
“When I found out that I had cancer, I said, ‘oh no’ and it was a shock to the system,” said Goeltzenleuchter. “To be the Survivor of the Year, it’s actually an honor.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Goeltzenleuchter and her husband, David, went on a wedding anniversary trip last June to Niagara Falls and Salem, Massachusetts in which it has been every five-year tradition for the couple who had celebrated its 35th anniversary at the time.
When the couple had reached Salem, both of them got sick, thinking about the weather change so she and her husband packed up and came home.
She then went to the doctors, and they told her it was a bacterial infection resulting in missing work for the rest of that week from her team leader job at Walmart in Bryan.
Returning to work on July 12, Goeltzenleuchter felt there was something wrong in which she had trouble breathing and told her employer she had sharp pains in her right lung area.
During her lunch break that same day, she went to the emergency room at Parkview Bryan Hospital and ran some tests.
They discovered she had blood clots in both lungs, two in the lower right lung and two in the upper left lung.
Following more tests, it was discovered they had found a mass in her cervix and told her at that point; they were going to send her to a specialist in Fort Wayne.
Goeltzenleuchter spent the night at the Parkview Bryan Hospital where she received heparin (blood thinner) which was administered intravenously.
The next morning, they came in and taken the IV out because her iron had dropped dangerously low. They gave her a blood transfusion before being transferred to Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne.
FURTHER TREATMENT IN FORT WAYNE
Goeltzenleuchter met with Dr. Anya Menzies, who is in the gynecologic oncology department, and performed a biopsy on the cervix where she had discovered a mass on her right side of her ovary.
“She said that mass didn’t look like cancer at that time, so she did the biopsy,” said Goeltzenleuchter.
Menzies contacted Goeltzenleuchter on July 18, 2025, and told her she had cervical cancer and it was stage three.
“I cried and it was fear and what was going to happen because I remember watching my grandmother and grandfather go through cancer, and that was thirty years ago,” said Goeltzenleuchter.
“My first reaction was fear, and the next reaction was that I got to let my family know. My mom and dad broke down in tears.”
The first thing out of my mom’s mouth was ‘don’t overdo it.’ Dad just looked at me, and he said are you okay. I told him, ‘It was a shock to the system.”
While Goeltzenleuchter was in Fort Wayne, they also did a colonoscopy and endoscopy and found a tumor in her colon.
On Sept. 11, 2025, she underwent major surgery where they removed six inches of her colon and her right ovary and then sent it out to be tested.
The following week after the surgery, Goeltzenleuchter was informed her colon was stage three colon cancer and her right ovary was stage one ovarian cancer.
“The odd thing was all three of them were separate cancers,” said Goeltzenleuchter. “We don’t know what triggered it, I think finding it was helped by that trip, because if we would not gone on that trip, I may not have gotten sick to where I had to go to the doctors.”
CHOOSING A TREATMENT
After they had taken out the colon and ovarian cancers, the doctors did talk to her even more and said they couldn’t do a hysterectomy, because her cervical cancer was connected to iliac lymph nodes.
“They said if they were doing a hysterectomy, it would be hard to go through the scar tissue to get to those iliac lymph nodes,” she said.
The next option for her cancer was chemotherapy treatments. “They (doctors) had originally talked to her about chemo and radiation, but they decided not to do the radiation,” said Goeltzenleuchter.
“They talked about chemo treatments and were going to try to find a chemo treatment that would hit both the colon and cervix at the same time. However, they stated there was not one that would be too much on my body to do that.”
Goeltzenleuchter was also introduced to a Natera blood testing system, and it’s done every three months.
She said it tests her blood work against the tissue from her colon cancer. They send it to the lab to see if anything else is growing and so far, nothing.
Menzies told her the left ovary showed signs of a mass growing on it and is keeping an eye on it.
UNDERGOING CHEMO TREATMENTS
Goeltzenleuchter began chemo treatments in November 2025 in which they had to wait for the healing of her surgery in Fort Wayne.
She had undergone six chemo treatments every three weeks, and after they did a PET scan following the sixth treatment, she found out that she was in remission.
“This was like a whirlwind for me,” said Goeltzenleuchter. “Hopefully it stays gone, they are going to do another PET scan in June before the Relay to see how its doing.”
Goeltzenleuchter continues to go every three weeks for what they call it ‘maintenance’ to boost her immune system because they said the chemo would kill in the immune system.
FAMILY SUPPORT
Goeltzenleuchter has been blessed throughout her personal battle with cancer especially with support from her family including her husband, David, her four children,
Brittany Goeltzenleuchter (32), Brandon Renfrow (30) and Bradley Goeltzenleuchter (29) all of whom reside in Edgerton. Another daughter, Briann Smith (26) resides in South Dakota.
She also has eight grandchildren. Her parents, Del and Jan Kittle, have been also equally supportive throughout her fight.
“It has been great,” she said regarding the family support. “My husband (David) has been there for me, my kids.
“My one son has Tuesdays off, so he’s been able to take me to a couple of my appointments. Unfortunately for Briann, had a hard time with this because she is out in South Dakota.
“She (Briann) did tell me though that when I had lost my hair, that she would cut hers and have a wig made out of it and I told her no because I said you keep your hair because I never wanted a wig.”
She has also received immense support from her church family (First Baptist Church, Bryan) as well as her work family (Walmart) where she had been employed for 17 years before her diagnosis
RELAY FOR LIFE
Goeltzenleuchter is looking forward to being involved in the Williams County Relay for Life on June 13.
“It’s going to be exciting but at the same time I will be there to talk to the other survivors,” she said. “My best friend Shelly Cook was a survivor last year.
“She will not be there this year because she passed away in January. I will be there even for her (Cook) family because I know a couple of her sisters said they wanted to come.”
Being the 2026 Williams County Relay for Life Survivor of the Year, Goeltzenleuchter has some advice for those who are either in remission or undergoing cancer treatments.
“Every cancer is different,” said Goeltzenleuchter. “Your treatments are maybe different, some people have to do radiation, some don’t.
“Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you have a navigation team like I have three different navigation teams, (her family, First Baptist Church, Bryan, Walmart, Bryan) don’t be afraid to use them.
“They can help you get things that you need or help you financially and all of that.”