At its regular weekly meeting on Thursday, Aug. 15, Ossian Rotary will hear from Carol Keplar, as she tells her story and shows pictures of her Ocular Melanoma journey and resulting liver cancer treatment.
At the age of 50, Keplar went to Indiana Wesleyan University and graduated Magna Cum Laude with her bachelor’s degree in business management. She works for Hallmark Home Mortgage as a quality control underwriter. Keplar has been involved in Rotary for over 15 years, in both Fort Wayne and Ossian. She was instrumental in starting the Ossian Rotary Club. Keplar has been president of Rotary clubs for three different terms.
Although originally from Michigan, Keplar has been an Ossian resident for over 15 years. She and husband Jeff have six children and twelve 12 grandchildren, with whom they enjoy camping and hiking, traveling, photography and spending time playing various games.
In August 2022, after a routine eye exam, Keplar was diagnosed with ocular melanoma, a rare and deadly cancer of the eye. She had brachytherapy (radiation treatment and surgery) in her eye in February of 2023. However, her cancer has now spread to her liver. When that happens, it can be very aggressive and life expectancy is counted in months, not years. Currently, there is no FDA approved drugs to treat her kind of ocular melanoma. However, Keplar was recently enrolled in a drug trial through Cleveland Clinic to hopefully help her and others in the future, to fight this horrible disease.
Anyone is welcome to attend Ossian Rotary this Thursday morning, at 7:30 at First Baptist Church of Ossian, 1001 Dehner Drive, for this program. For more information, please contact Matthew Gullion, Ossian Rotary President, at mwgullion@gmail.com.
Next Thursday, Aug. 22, Ossian Rotary will host Janiece Lipsey, executive director of the Wells County Creative Arts Council.
Ossian Rotary is a group of people with a desire to meet new people, network, get involved and make a difference in Ossian and the surrounding community. Each week we have a different speaker, to help us stay informed on topics that are relevant to our community.
