As a longtime Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher, Southport-raised Kathy Blagdon said she’s used to helping other people, not having other people do things for her.

So all the support the 1975 Boothbay Region High School graduate has been receiving in her fight with cancer is taking some getting used to. “I’m quite overwhelmed,” Blagdon, of Wiscasset, said January 7. “And I’m very appreciative.”

Fellow county staffers will be showing their support in a big way on Saturday, Jan. 11, when they serve up spaghetti at a benefit for Blagdon. The event, which will also include a raffle and silent auction, runs from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Wiscasset Community Center on Route 27. The meal is $5 a plate.

Lincoln County emergency management agency director Tod Hartung said Blagdon has touched many lives in her 29 years on the job.

“Whenever I'm talking about work ethic, I always point to Kathy. She's a stalwart,” Hartung said. Blagdon has also served as a sheriff’s deputy and a reserve officer for the Damariscotta Police Department. She once went three years without using a single sick day.

“You can’t imagine how valuable she is to this place .... This is something that has hit us very hard,” he said about Blagdon’s illness. “We're doing whatever we can to help.”

She is facing the cancer treatment with her characteristic positive attitude, Hartung said.

Blagdon credits a strong support network of co-workers, friends and family. She still has family in Southport, or, as she calls it, “God’s country.”

Employees at other emergency agencies have offered to help with Saturday’s benefit, announced on local and national public safety websites and emails. “We've had people coming out of the woodwork,” Hartung said.

Blagdon has received cards from well-wishers as far away as Tennessee and Connecticut. She still isn’t sure why she’s getting so much attention, but she said she hopes people will also remember that other public safety workers over the years have also had cancer and other illnesses.

Her cancer, in the blood and bone marrow, has no cure. A planned stem cell transplant at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston may put it into remission for a number of years, she said.

Hartung said donations toward Blagdon’s expenses may be mailed, in care of Mark A. Creamer, Lincoln County 911 Supervisor, P..O. Box 249, Wiscasset, ME 04578.