Matt Siegle spent two winters fixing up the fishing boat he received from the Make-A-Wish foundation. Once the boat was up to his standards, he could take it out to do his favorite thing: fish.

“I grew up fishing and I love it. There’s nothing better,” he said with a smile as chemicals fed into his body intravenously.

Siegle was in Billings for five days to undergo his eighth and final cycle of chemotherapy at Billings Clinic to combat sarcoma.

The Fourth of July marked his independence from the tubes and, hopefully, from cancer.

“He’s been quite the champ,” his sister, Tracy Russo, said.

Siegle wants to use his passion for fishing to be a champion for others as well.

Siegle and his family organized “Fishin’ for the Cure,” a fundraiser benefiting sarcoma research. Participants will fish on the Hauser Reservoir near Helena on Saturday, July 12, to try to catch the biggest walleye, rainbow trout, perch and carp. Winners will receive cash prizes.

Siegle said they chose fishing because it is a family activity and just plain fun.

“Why not be at the lake and throw out a fishing pole?” he asked.

An auction, dinner and dance at the Lakeside Resort are set for 6 p.m. Friday.

The event is part of Sarcoma Awareness Week, which runs July 12-18. “Fishin’ for the Cure” will be one of nearly 60 events around the world reminding people that the disease, though rare in adults, affects many.

Sarcoma is a cancer of connective tissues, like nerves, muscles, cartilage, joints bone or blood vessels. It accounts for only 1 percent of adult cancers, and 15 to 20 percent of child cancers.

“We call it the forgotten cancer,” Russo said. “We’ve just seen way too many not make it. We felt like the only thing we could do was try to prevent someone else from going through it.”

Siegle said his reason for holding the event is to protect children from the disease.

“It breaks your heart to see a little kid that doesn’t know better,” he said. “I know what it feels like and I don’t want a kid going through it.”

In May 2003, Siegle was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, after pains in his leg sent him to the doctor two weeks before graduating from Dawson County High School in Glendive.

After discovering the cancer, he endured a year of intense chemotherapy, after which he enrolled at Dawson Community College in Glendive and earned an associate of art and an associate of science degree.

Respite from disease did not last long.

In 2006, the cancer returned in his lungs. After numerous surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy, the young man, who once competed at wrestling tournaments, had only one-third of his right lung remaining and a prosthetic knee replacing the bone removed to battle his first round of cancer.

Now 23, Siegle has had 22 cycles of chemotherapy. He said support from family and friends and God keeps him going.

His girlfriend of three years, Katie Shepherd, offered another reason.

“He’s stubborn,” she said.

“Yeah,” Siegle said with a laugh, adding that persevering was the only option. “There’s no real reason not to. I just keep plugging away.”

Recently, Siegle did just that. He took his boat, the Blue Fin, out on Hauser Reservoir to test out the fishing for the competition and “be one with nature.”

He caught a five-pound rainbow trout.

Click here for more information about sarcoma or to register for the fishing tournament.

Click here to visit Matt's CaringBridge page.