Du Quoin artist airbrushes his way into cancer patient's heart

Every now and then you decide there's still hope for the world.

That hope came two weeks ago on board the Kid Rock Cruise, a perennial cruise well-traveled by the rocker's Du Quoin friends, Mr. and Mrs.Mont Kuhnert and Mr. and Mrs. Robbie Eaton. Joining the cruise this year were Mr. and Mrs. Keith Bell, a gifted local artist who had airbrushed rock and roll bib overalls for Kid Rock and his friends.

This is where the story turns into something extraordinary. Monte Kuhnert tells the story: "As you know, Keith and Zebada Bell were on the cruise with us and the Eatons this year. We had a great time as always and heard a lot of great music. We hung out with Kid Rock again and he was a great host as always," Kuhnert begins.

"Something very positive happened as a result of this group of Kid Rock fans coming together."

"Keith, of course, was a big hit on the boat with all the cruisers. They love his art and he did a lot of work and took a lot of orders before and after the cruise. However, there was one lady in particular that Keith has helped. The lady's name is Rea McAninch, and she has Stage 4 colon cancer. She is from Michigan. She was on the cruise, but struggling.

" She is fighting the disease but her prognosis is not good," said Kuhnert.

" Keith did some art for her before the cruise and then was able to meet her during the cruise. Rea also had the opportunity to get her picture taken with Kid Rock, which she greatly appreciated," Kuhnert said.

However, the amazing part of the story is what Keith did after the cruise:

He found out that Rea had been struggling with medical bills, so he went on the "Chillin the Most" Facebook page(The official page for the cruise) and offered to do a pair of bibs for anyone who wanted to bid on them. He posted this auction offer last Friday at 5:20 p.m. and cut off the bidding at 9.p.m. In that 3 and a half hour period, the cruisers from around the country started bidding and ran the bid up to $3000 for a pair of bibs!! At the end, there were two bids, one for $3000 and the other for $3100, so Keith said he would do two pair. He raised $6100 for this lady that he hardly knows!

There IS hope.