CELEBRATING ALL THAT’S GOOD,
Stephanie Scoletti didn’t think much of it when she starting bruising in the summer of 2005. The busy 20-year-old was running from one activity to another as she counted down to the start of her junior year at the University of Pittsburgh. The random black-and-blue marks on her legs and hands? “I’m just clumsy,” she remembers thinking, confident they would pass.
Only they didn’t.
As the fall semester approached, the bruises got worse. The West Mifflin native also started to run fevers and gain weight as she retained water. On a warm Wednesday evening in August, her temperature soared so high that her parents took her to the emergency room. And in a flash, life as she knew it was over.
Three days after being admitted to the hospital, doctors delivered the news: She had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
It was a devastating diagnosis that turned her entire world upside down. For months, as she lost her hair during chemotherapy and radiation treatments and withered to just 113 pounds, she wondered if she would live or die.
Yet the fear and uncertainty she felt were no match for her fighting spirit. That positive attitude, in turn, along with everything she learned during treatment and recovery, eventually led to her doing a whole lot of good for others staring down their own cancer diagnoses.
Last year, after running a support group for young cancer patients at Cancer Caring Center in Bloomfield for eight years, she established her own nonprofit to provide emotional, social and financial support for cancer survivors ages 18 to 40. Even with COVID-19 keeping people at an arm’s distance, it’s proved a success: With nearly 300 members, Young Adult Survivors United is the largest community for young adult cancer survivors and co-survivors in Western Pennsylvania. It also draws members from 17 other states and Canada.
Because their lives are in such transition, young adults experience cancer much differently than any other population, explains Ms. Scoletti, who went back to school a year after being diagnosed, eventually earning a master’s degree in social work in 2010. In addition to establishing their independence from parents, they’re embarking on careers. Many are also are forming intimate relationships or
having children.
“Just when they’re thriving, they’re blindsided by cancer — physically, psychologically and
mentally in ways that other populations can’t relate to,” she says.
While numerous cancer organizations in the region are there to
assist young or older cancer patients, none offered the exclusive support and understanding of the unique challenges 20- and 30 -somethings face, she says.
Social isolation and financial difficulties often are the biggest problems cancer patients in young adulthood confront, she says. Young parents (including single parents) often have to work during their treatments because they’re the sole providers. Or because they’re sick, they don’t have the chance to go out with friends and build bonds of support.
The coronavirus pandemic has only complicated matters. Many of YASU’s members are too ill to work, or the rules have changed, compounding financial stresses and increasing anxiety and depression. The group aims to help them improve their quality of life by empowering them to not just survive but thrive.
It supports anyone affected by any type of cancer — newly diagnosed survivors, along with those in post-treatment or with advanced, metastatic disease.
Ms. Scoletti says, “We help them not feel alone and build the bonds they don’t have an opportunity to build elsewhere” through support groups, a book club, educational workshops and virtual socials. With funding from individual donors, foundation grants and fundraisers, it’s also able to provide gift cards for the little extras that brighten someone’s day, and financial assistance to help pay medical bills, rent, utilities and school loans.
With more people getting vaccinated, the group has started to hold in-person events. Last month, YASU hosted a festive photo shoot for about 20 members at Studio Raw Elite in Ross. Due to cancer’s overwhelming expenses, many survivors don’t have the means to pay for family photos or new headshots for jobs, Ms. Scoletti notes. So Lynda Scahill and sister-in-law Stephanie Green of Simply Sisters Photography took the women’s photos for free. Kendra Scott in Shadyside provided free styling.
Both businesses are longtime friends and supporters. Ms. Scoletti met hair salon co-owners Dan and Lorraine Burda when she was getting her head shaved there before chemotherapy back in 2005, and for years they helped sponsor Wig Out! events for cancer survivors. Simply Sisters shot her 2016 wedding to Matt, an “eternal optimist” who has raised close to $100,000 for cancer survivors over the years through endurance events.
Last April, for example, he raised $13,000 for YASU by running a 100-mile ultramarathon around the couple’s 1-mile cul-de-sac in Hampton, a feat that took 29 hours.
In May, he’ll complete the virtual Pittsburgh Marathon for the charity, while his wife will raise money by running the half-marathon.
After greeting members and their families at the door at Studio Raw Elite, Ms. Scoletti ushered them into the bright and airy hair salon, where they were whisked away by one of the photographers for a 15-minute photo shoot. It was about so much more than getting some free snapshots.
Survivors’ confidence and self-esteem are depleted during and after cancer treatment and/or surgery, Ms. Scoletti says. The professional photos will empower them to feel good again, by capturing their inner strength and beauty. There also was the fringe benefit of meeting the people who’ve been a virtual lifeline over the past year in person for the first time.
One participant got an additional treat with her photos. As she was turning 35 that day, Nicole Cox of Aliquippa was surprised at the door with a giant bouquet of helium balloons and a birthday cake.
The administrator coordinator for UPMC Health Plan had a double mastectomy for recurrent breast cancer in July while planning her wedding in the midst of a pandemic. YASU, she says, has provided much-needed mental and emotional support, along with a chance to be open and honest and “let it all hang out.”
“They let me have my moment,” she says.
She was thrilled to have straightened her hair for the first time in four months for the photos with her husband, Marcus, who wore a “Clyde” T-shirt to go with her “Bonnie” one. “I did cold capping through treatment,” she says, referring to the cold cap worn on the head before, during and after chemotherapy to reduce hair loss.
Too often, she says, young cancer survivors are ignored. Even family doesn’t always know how to relate. Events such as the photo shoot, she notes, “give us a voice. We feel like we’re being paid attention to.”
The group, Mr. Cox agrees, “helps boost her
confidence and make her feel like she isn’t different any more. ... They create a safe haven. They understand.”
Just around the corner, a 25-year-old survivor named Fran was hamming it up for
the camera, posing with her hands on her hips and sporting a jaunty smile. “Love it!” Ms. Scahill exclaimed as she shot frame after frame.
The Weirton, W.Va., native was first diagnosed with breast cancer at age 22, just
after she graduated from college. The cancer returned two years later. YASU provided the support she failed to find elsewhere.
“You just feel better when you’re around younger people who have the same
things,” she says.
The photo shoot was a good reason to get out of the house, but she also wanted to see how her face has changed over her cancer journey; after being sad for so long, she thought maybe her eyes would looked different.
“I also just wanted to have fun,” she says, adding that she’d probably use the photo to update her LinkedIn profile.
Trish Hredzak-Showalter of Verona was there for family shots with her husband, Danny, and 4-year-old Winnie. The 37-year-old recently completed immunotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that affects the body’s immune system — a diagnosis that left her in shock.
She learned of the group after hearing Ms. Scoletti talk about a fundraiser on the radio, and she quickly came to appreciate its unique offerings.
When you get cancer in your 30s, you’re just in a different life phase, and that can leave you floundering, says Ms. Hredzak-Showalter. “It was so great to find other young parents and spouses who didn’t know how to deal with it.”
“It’s an outlet for when she’s feeling down,” says her husband.
Getting a professional headshot was something she ordinarily wouldn’t have time do, between working as a lab manager for Carnegie Mellon University and caring for Winnie. But having been recently appointed to Verona Council, it could come in handy if she decides to run in an upcoming municipal election, she says. “It’s not quite the same as [takinga photo] on your cellphone, ”she says with a laugh. As for Ms. Scoletti?
She was thrilled so many members were able to connect in person for the first time. She also loved the fact there were so many smiles. The positivity and self-confidence were infectious.
She recalls how she originally planned to become a pharmacist when she transferred to Pitt her junior year. Returning to school in 2006 after a year of treatment, though, her heart just wasn’t into it.
“I had new life and new purpose and thought I had something special to give to the world,” she says. YASU proves it.