Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501180083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Cancer was removed from the Covington woman's breast in 1987.
Four years later, after additional cancer was found in her bones and lung, Tingler's friends and neighbors began a campaign to raise funds to pay for surgery that would extend her life several years.
Through yard sales, raffles and donations, the Sharon Tingler Cancer Fund raised more than $170,000 for the experimental transplant, which at the time was not covered by insurance.
The operation was an initial success for Tingler, the mother of two daughters and wife of Randall "Bun" Tingler, a lieutenant with the Alleghany County Sheriff's Office.
In a 1992 interview with the Roanoke Times & World-News, Tingler said she wasn't sure how to thank all the friends and strangers who had supported her family financially and emotionally.
"I'm thankful to be alive, to be well, to be able to go again," she said. "There are a lot of people praying for me. I hope I can help somebody else."
Tingler was the first woman to serve in the Boiling Springs Volunteer Fire Department and was a hunter-education instructor for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Her funeral was Monday.
by CNB