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Since January, Kate “Kitty” Mayo, has been losing her eyesight. 

“How ironic is that for a newspaper editor?” she said.

Mayo has been editing the Lake County Press, a small newspaper located in Two Harbors, Minn., since the paper started four years ago. In that time, it has garnered 700 subscribers in a town of 4,000 all while Mayo experienced seemingly inexplicable vision changes.

It wasn’t until May of this year, when she finally was able to get an answer via a diagnosis from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, more than 200 miles from home. 

“I have been diagnosed with ocular lymphoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. The good news is that it responds well to treatment,” Mayo wrote in an editorial addressed to the subscribers of the press. In that same article she made a call to action.

“‘What are we going to do to keep the newspaper going while I get treatment for this?’” She told MPR News.

The community responded. Thirty-five people, most of whom were already contributors to the newspaper, sat down at a potluck to figure out how to keep the publication going while Mayo drove to and from Rochester for treatment. 

“I knew this was going to work because the community wants it and they're willing to contribute to it,” she said.

Ball games, court meetings, town halls, all events Mayo would cover herself, are now split among her volunteer staff. Additionally, the writers agreed to be more diligent about Mayo’s editorial standards to keep stories brief and save her more time editing.

Beyond that, the staff not only volunteers their time to the paper but to Mayo herself. Members of the “Kitty Care Club” drop off meals and check-in on Mayo as she works through her treatment. 

“That kind of stuff just really feels like what I would hope for in a community,” she said.

Listen to the conversation by clicking the player above. 

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Dozens of people in Two Harbors have pitched into help keep the Lake County Press publishing as editor Kate “Kitty” Mayo battled ocular lymphoma, a rare and aggressive cancer.

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