Concert to benefit cancer-stricken Valley girl being treated in Germany

WASILLA — Lately, Yetta Hein hasn’t had a lot in the way of good news.

Hein flew to Kenya with her family on a mission trip sponsored by the Wasilla Christian Church on Jan. 10. In church newsletters, her family writes of praying and singing with Kenyans and starting a Bible study group.

“The government does not provide schooling past grade school, so the kids need sponsors or wealthy parents to go to high school,” Tom Hein wrote in a newsletter. “So many want sponsors, it is difficult to say no. The last I checked we had sponsored 14 children and three pastors, all that we can possibly do for now.”

When she got sick there, Hein checked into a hospital in Nairobi where doctors said she had pneumonia.

The church paid to fly her to Frankfurt, Germany, where doctors quickly changed that diagnosis to cancer. The disease had infected her lungs and other parts of her body. And it was not just any cancer, but a rare form called Ewing’s Sarcoma that affects only 1 in 3.6 million women.

“She says she’s very special,” said her cousin, Hilary Beckett, showing how Hein hasn’t let the diagnosis dim her sense of humor.

The treatment will be a long one. Right now it’s chemotherapy.

“She started her first one, so she’s very sick right now,” Beckett said last week. “She doesn’t have insurance.”

The costs aren’t as high in Germany as they are here, Beckett said, since Germany has public health care. But it’s not going to be cheap.

That’s why the church has organized a benefit concert for Hein, scheduled for 7 p.m., May 13. It might end up being the first of many. Pete Munday and The Johnny Ramirez Band will perform. Beckett’s husband, Phillip Beckett, will speak and give attendees an update on how Hein is doing.

Beckett said that aside from herself and her husband, the only family Hein has in Alaska is her grandmother. They’ve been able to keep in touch over the phone and via email. All of Hein’s immediate family is in Germany caring for her, and they’ll likely be there awhile.

“She is unable to fly home. The altitude is difficult, but she’s also at one of the best hospitals in the world for treating this sort of thing,” Beckett said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.