More than 1,000 attend Fisher memorial service in Kalispell

More than 1,000 people attended the service last Friday for Paxton Fisher, the Columbia Falls High School senior who recently died from complications due to cancer.

The Canvas Church in Kalispell was so full, people watched the service from television screens in the lobby. The service was also streamed online.

The service featured music and prayers for the family. Columbia Falls soccer coach O’Brien Byrd gave an impassioned talk about Fisher, noting the young man was suffering from cancer late in the soccer season before he even knew he had it. He had trouble swallowing and was on a semi-liquid diet. Despite that, Fisher, a co-captain of the boys soccer team, played the best game of his high school career in the semifinals of the state A playoffs, Byrd noted.

Byrd said Fisher was a quiet leader with a sharp sense of humor.

He urged the crowd to live their lives like Fisher.

“Play like Paxton, play for Paxton,” he said. “Take your life with both hands and run for it.”

Fisher’s best friend, Dawson Pelletier, also spoke.

“We had the most precious memories I’ll ever have,” he said. “His legacy will live forever.”

Pelletier, who lives in Cranbrook, British Columbia, got to know Fisher when they worked and spent time together as camp counselors at the Dickey Lake Bible Camp.

In addition to co-captaining the Columbia Falls soccer team, Fisher was a talented musician and played in four different high school bands.

Over the past few months, Fisher, 18, went through a host of chemotherapy treatments at Kalispell Regional Medical Center for an inoperable tumor in his esophagus.

He was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a particularly aggressive form of cancer, on Feb. 2. He passed away April 18.