Many join cancer fight after disease hits home

Relay participants hope the money raised will help eradicate cancer.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
The ravages of cancer hitting a family member can be a motivating factor.
Bouts with cancer themselves or by family members inspired three local residents -- Regina and Don Vaughn of Niles and Mark Luke of Boardman -- to get involved in the American Cancer Society's Relays for Life.
Their hope is that research funded with the money raised by the 4,800 relays nationwide, including 217 in Ohio, will help eradicate cancer.
Their hope and inspiration also are personal.
"We want to find a preventive or a cure before they get it [breast cancer]," said the Vaughns, referring to Regina's daughter, Heidi Berry of Niles, and Heidi's daughter, Mallorie, 16, a sophomore at Mineral Ridge High School. "That's why we are in it."
The Vaughns have six children between them: Four are Don's from another marriage, and two are Regina's, also from another marriage.
Regina's great-grandmother, grandmother and mother all had breast cancer. Her mother was 36 when she was diagnosed, the same age as Heidi is now.
"I expected to get it, and I was surprised when I didn't get it at age 36," Regina said.
Difficult time
When she was diagnosed in 1993 at age 45, she was not surprised, but she was nonetheless "devastated." Now 59, she has been clear of cancer for about 10 years. However, in between diagnosis and remission, she had two recurrences, which required radiation and chemotherapy treatments, and a stem cell transplant that was a yearlong process and life-threatening in itself.
"I never expected to come out of the hospital. I was ready. ... I never felt like a hero. I never asked, 'Why me?' I said, 'Why not me?' Who would I wish this on," she said.
"I knew her dying was a possibility, but I never thought it was going to happen," said Don, a retired construction pipefitter who worked out of the former Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 225 in Warren, which merged with Youngstown Local 87, and is now Local 396.
But now that she has survived this long, Regina is hopeful that she may yet beat the disease. Her grandmother, who had breast cancer, lived to the age of 91 and died of a heart ailment.
Don and Regina are 1955 and 1965 graduates of Niles McKinley High School, respectively.
Don, 69, who is a prostate cancer survivor, said he was pressured into getting tested by his wife and family physician and was diagnosed in February 1999.
He said he was fortunate that it was caught early, and doctors told him they believed the cancer had not moved from his prostate. "It's been seven or eight years now," he said.
Why they're involved
As a result of their experiences, Don and Regina are involved in the Niles Relay for Life. Also, she founded BEACON -- Better Emotional Awareness of Cancer and Our Needs -- a breast cancer support group, and is a volunteer for the cancer society's Reach to Recovery and Look Good, Feel Better programs.
"I think you get to a point where your major concern turns to others," Don said.
"It's a very emotional thing when you make that first lap," Regina said of the 24-hour Relay for Life.
The first lap is for cancer survivors only.
Regina said she walked with her father in 2006 after he had been diagnosed with cancer and knew he was going to have treatment.
The Vaughns said being involved in the Relay is inspiring, but it can also be tough because not everybody lives.
"I didn't know if I could go on supporting people," Regina said, after her best friend in BEACON, Ruth Jones of Vienna, died. "It hurt so much."
"I don't have a fear of cancer. I hate it," said Luke, who is in his third year as chairman of the Boardman Relay for Life.
The Boardman Relay is third in per capita giving in the state. The Warren Relay in Trumbull County is first.
"Cancer killed my parents. I want it to go away. I want to find a cure," he said, explaining his involvement in the event.
His parents
Luke's parents, Paul Luke, an eighth-grade science teacher at Boardman Schools, and his mother, Felicitas Gura Luke, who he said was the first female foreman at the Lordstown General Motors assembly plant, both died at age 67: Paul of prostate cancer in 1991 and Felicitas of cervical cancer in 1996.
"I saw up close how much my parents suffered. You don't want that to happen to yourself or others," said Luke, a business consultant who formerly worked locally in the commercial banking industry.
"We've lost people who participated in the Relay, and it's difficult. But, I remain inspired by what they did when they were here, and who they helped," said Luke, who has been involved in the Relay for about 10 years.
Luke said the Boardman Relay is conducted at Boardman Stadium at Boardman Center Middle School. Boardman schools provides a number of student and faculty teams and is a "gracious host to us."
Luke, who is on the ACS Nationwide Leadership Training Team, said his wife, Karen, is tremendously supportive of his work with the Relay.
Luke, a deacon at Westminster Presbyterian Church, said: "I might be the point man, but the Relay event doesn't happen without my committee and volunteers and participants."
"I tell people to come out and see the survivor lap. When you see their courage, it will change your life. It gives you a sense of purpose to help your fellow man and know that the money raised can have a positive affect on something bigger than yourself," he said.
alcorn@vindy.com