Keeping up the fight

Amy R. Spurgeon

NEWPORT PIER -- Despite his battle with bone cancer, Bill Gorman couldn’t

help but glow Wednesday at a benefit held to raise money for his medical

bills.

Locals familiar with the Costa Mesa resident’s fight to keep his left leg

showed up and raised $800 at The Sol Grill on the Newport Pier. Gorman,

32, has undergone seven surgeries and faces three to four additional

operations this year to treat an infection.

“My body is falling apart a lot quicker, but I just try to keep smiling,”

he said. “I’ve got to keep plugging away. I have bills to pay.”

Gorman was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, commonly known as bone

cancer, when he was 19. He refused to let doctors amputate his leg,

saying he would rather die.

Instead, with the help of his parents, he located a Los Angeles-based

physician who performed a limb salvage surgery. The procedure, combined

with high-level doses of chemotherapy, saved his life -- but not his

wallet.

Over the years, six more surgeries to save the leg have left him almost

penniless, said Gorman, who works as a bouncer. And a lack of medical

insurance has always been a problem.

To make ends meet, the 220-pound, 5-foot, 9-inch native New Yorker works

at three different bars in Orange County.

But to him, it is worth the hard work.

“When it’s all said and done, I see myself walking away on my own two

feet,” Gorman said. “In my book, there is no other possible outcome. It’s

unacceptable.”

The owner of The Sol Grill, Denise Puccinelli, said she hopes to raise

$10,000 to help Gorman before his surgeries begin in November. So far,

she’s donated more than $2,000.

“I would help anybody. I’ve always been like that,” said Puccinelli. “If

I see someone who doesn’t have a stroller and they need one, I’ll buy

them one. I just feel I have been so blessed in my life. If I can make

somebody’s life easier for the moment, I will.”

Gorman considers Puccinelli his guardian angel and is awed by her

kindness. She arranged the first fund-raiser for him in May, only a month

after they met.

“I think it’s more impressive for someone to go out of their way like

this than all of the pain and suffering I’ve been through,” Gorman said.

“Because you can’t expect people to help you. Nobody owes me anything.”

Patrons at The Sol Grill dined on blackened ahi, fettuccine jambalaya and

filet mignon as the sun set Wednesday.

“We are here to support Bill. It’s nice that Denise stepped up and opened

this up to the community,” said Scott Riddle, a Costa Mesa resident.

“This isn’t corporate America. It’s just a small business doing something

good for the community.”

FYI

For information about future benefits for Bill Gorman, call The Sol Grill

at (949) 723-4105.