Jakson Little, left, stands with his father, George Little. George Little, president of the Collinsville Bass Club, was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

As president of the Collinsville Bass Club, George Little has spent the past 12 years helping his members succeed on the water and has ensured that their experiences as members are enjoyable.

Those members recently came together to reciprocate the goodwill shown by their president.

Collinsville Bass Club members who fished in the year-end Classic earlier this month donated $8,900 to Little, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on June 1. The money will be used to help cover Little’s medical expenses.

“For the first time in my life, I was speechless,” Little, 59, said. “I did not know what to say. It made me cry — I was overwhelmed. I just couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘I can’t take this. This is too much.’ I contacted a few and was assured that I had no choice in the matter. But I did not know what to say, and I was overwhelmed. Words couldn’t describe the feelings.”

Little became ill in March and went to a local physician for clarity. He left the appointment believing he was just the latest in his family to suffer from diabetes. 

“Once I saw a (doctor), diabetes runs in my family, and they just assumed basically, ‘OK, it runs in your family and you’ve got the symptoms, so you’ve got diabetes,’” Little recalled. “We were treating it as diabetes, and that’s what the symptoms were, and everything was going well with that.”

Shortly before Memorial Day, a concerned friend told Little the color of his skin didn’t look normal, as it had a yellow tint. But since there were no additional symptoms, Little didn’t think much of it. However, during a trip with friends to his camp on the Tom Bigbee River during Memorial Day weekend, more people shared their concerns that his skin looked jaundiced. 

“I still did not have a pain or any inkling that there was something seriously wrong,” Little said. “But I had a buddy there and he works at a hospital, and so does is wife, and they made sure that when we got back to Meridian that Tuesday that I got in to see a doctor.”

That doctor’s visit included blood work and a CT scan, and it was then that Little was alerted that he had a tumor on his pancreas. What happened next, Little said, could be described as divine intervention.

“At that point, God started opening and closing doors to get us to where we needed to be,” Little said. “My cousin is a nurse and is over the critical care unit at Baptist (Hospital) in Memphis, and my wife called her, and (my cousin) said, ‘The doctor you need to see just walked by here. Let me run him down.’ This was on Wednesday afternoon at 4 o’clock, and he told her to tell us to be there in the morning.”

The family set out for Baptist Memorial Hospital Memphis and arrived the morning following the discovery of the tumor. After speaking with a nurse, Little learned his insurance wasn’t covered at Baptist Memorial Hospital, but he was able to go to nearby Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital for treatment.

“By Friday, I had some procedures done,” Little said. “The tumor had actually blocked a duct on my liver that kept it from draining, and that’s why I was jaundice. But they put a stent in, and my condition started improving immediately. I guess I did feel bad at that time but didn’t realize it.”

After a four-day hospital stay, Little returned to Meridian a little before midnight on June 5, and that’s when he found out that his members had given him a gift. He said his son, Jakson, had told Little’s wife, Pam, but he had no idea. Jakson and fellow members formulated their plan while Little was in the hospital. 

“My son is my partner, and I insisted that he fished the tournament,” Little said. “I think the guys had been kicking it around the entire weekend. And Sunday, when it was time to give out the checks, everybody gave their check back. When we came in the door, my wife said, I’ve got something to tell you.’” 

Due to the early detection, Little’s doctor has given him a favorable prognosis. Little began chemotherapy last week and will undergo treatment every two weeks before eventually undergoing another CT to see if the tumor has reacted appropriately. Surgery will follow. 

Little hopes to fish in his club’s first tournament in July, but said he also expects to be sidelined for the next few tournaments as he undergoes treatment. He said the amount of love shown by his members has been amazing.

“They touched me in a way that nobody ever has before,” he said, after taking a moment to gather his words. “We have a closeness that is more than I could have ever imagined. Words still cannot express my gratitude and how thankful I am for those guys, and for everyone. The outpouring of prayer and people reaching out have been overwhelming.”