Benefit set for next Friday to help Walen with costs fighting cancer

Friends and family of Matt Walen have scheduled a benefit dinner and auction for the 1985 Havre High School graduate next Friday at the Eagles Club from 6 to 8 p.m.

The 1985 graduate and former Havre Daily News editor will not be at the event, as he will be in Aurora, Colorado, undergoing a second stem cell transplant in his third bout fighting cancer, but his wife, Milene, will be there.

Walen is undergoing treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome, inability of a person’s bone marrow to produce normal red blood cells.

Walen, who left the Havre Daily News in 2001 to start working for the Billings Gazzette, has been unable to work as he has been in and out of hospitals with complications. He was recently released from the hospital in Cheyenne where he had an infection in his blood.

The benefit dinner, which has no admission fee, will be shrimp linguine.

A variety of items will be auctioned at the benefit, including “Griz Tickets” for season opener on Sept. 2, and a “Night out in Billings” and other items.

A GoFundMe account where people can donate to help Walen with his expenses has been set up at https://www.gofundme.com/mattwalen.