Beehive Grill gives to local cancer fighter
The Beehive Grill in Logan hosted a benefit dinner Monday to help a local couple pay more than $20,000 in medical expenses.
The restaurant will donate 20 percent of all Monday sales directly to benefit Brandon Bennett and his fiancee Terri Hardman, Cache Valley residents who have been in a relationship for more than 11 years.
Bennett was diagnosed with cancer in 2000. He overcame the disease but underwent the loss of a kidney. Years later in May 2012, Bennett was diagnosed with kidney failure.
“He proposed on our 10-year anniversary – about two months later, he was diagnosed,” Hardman said.
For the months following his diagnosis, his schedule consisted of up to four weekly dialysis treatments to filter his blood and compensate for his failing kidney. Each treatment lasted three to four hours. Due to treatment, nausea, pain and exhaustion, he was unable to work for nearly a year.
In December, Hardman was approved as a compatible kidney donor.
“It was a pretty good Christmas present for us,” Hardman said. “It can take anywhere from two to 10 years to get a transplant – having a live donor makes it that much easier. I was just really excited that I was the one to be able to help him.”
March 26, Bennett and Hardman underwent surgery to transplant Hardman’s kidney to Bennett. The pair was released from the hospital on Saturday after a successful surgery.
“It went really well – probably our best hospital experience so far,” Hardman said. “Healing is great and the kidney is functioning really well.”
Prior to the surgery, Hardman was working more than 60 hours per week at the Beehive Grill in order to help support Bennett.
“Brandon hasn’t been able to work for the last several months just because he has been very sick,” said Jennifer Rogers, account manager of the Beehive Grill. “So she’s been working a lot just trying to pull her weight and make up for it.”
It wasn’t enough. After lengthy hospital stays, complicated treatments and surgeries, the couple has acquired more than $20,000 in medical expenses.
“Terri is not only a colleague, but one of my personal friends as well,” Rogers said. “I think very highly of her. We’re trying to get anybody and everybody on board to try and help them out. We’ll be open all day and they can just come in and dine, and then the Beehive Grill is going to donate a portion of the net sales to Terri and Brandon.”
“I’m just overwhelmed,” Hardman said. “I just can’t believe how good of people we have around us. The support we have has just been amazing. I’m more than appreciative of it. It’s been good to have such caring people around us.”
– calewp@gmail.com