News

Farm Rescue assists local man

By Scott Wagar

06/04/2013

Farm Rescue was in Bottineau County this past week to assist one of the county’s agricultural producers who is recovering from cancer which has left him without the ability to plant his own crops.

On Thursday, Farm Rescue came to Darrell Stokes’ fields and started planting his crops for him. Recently, Stokes was diagnosed with cancer, leaving him on the sidelines at the present moment during his recovery process.

“I was diagnosed with prostate cancer,” Stokes said. “Through the process of caring for me, they did a biopsy of my prostate and in the process also found a spot on my skull. They did a biopsy of that, too, and discovered a brain tumor. Technically, it is not a brain tumor, it could have been there 15 years and it’s just not doing anything, and it may never do anything. But, they had to do a biopsy of it to see if they were going to be able to go ahead with the prostate surgery.”

Once cleared for prostate surgery, Stokes’ surgeons went forward and conducted a radical prostate surgery on him, which has left him limited in what he can do until he recovers.

“I am recovering at the moment,” Stokes said. “I am not really supposed to be doing physical work at all. For example, I am limited to only 20 pounds when it comes to lifting.”

Not only has Stokes had to struggle with a serious medical condition, but on top of that the wet weather in Bottineau County this spring has placed Stokes and farmers throughout the county and state, far behind in their planting deadlines.

“With my cancer, the only other way I could have done it was to rely on the neighbors,” Stokes said. “The neighbors were really good and volunteered to help me if I needed them. And, they would have been really good in coming and helping me, but everybody is in the same situation, we are running behind with planting this season.”

Faced with a difficult situation, Stokes remembered reading about Farm Rescue in the local REA magazine and area newspapers and made the decision to call the volunteer organization, which agreed to assist Stokes in his time of need.

“Farm Rescue is a really good organization,” Stokes said. “They were easy to work with.”

According to Farm Rescue’s website, Farm Rescue is a volunteer organization which plant and harvest crops for farm families that have suffered from injury, illness or natural disaster.  

Charlie Bartsch, the lead man for Farm Rescue in the Stokes project, stated that he is pleased to be a member of Farm Rescue.

“I enjoy doing this,” Bartsch said. “I like to be able to help others.”

Bartsch is from Minot and has been volunteering for Farm Rescue for six years. So far this year, he has assisted six farmers this year with their spring work and has four more projects to go.

Farm Rescue will travel throughout North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa this spring and will plant thousands of acres of land. In Stokes’ case, Farm Rescue planted 500 acres of wheat and canola for him.

Stokes said that he feels blessed in having Farm Rescue come to his own rescue in his time of need.

“I am very happy with Farm Rescue coming,” Stokes said. “They really took a load off of me and I appreciate it so much.”