Remembering a fighter

Remembering a fighter

Columbus Dispatch: Stefanie Spielman will be remembered across the country as a foremost champion in the fight against the disease that eventually took her life. But those who knew more of her and her family also will pay tribute to a life well-lived.

The first clue most people had of the rare devotion between Stefanie and her husband, Chris Spielman, beloved locally as an All-America linebacker for Ohio State University, came when her breast cancer was diagnosed in 1998. The bruising football player, then playing for the Buffalo Bills, announced he would sit out the 1998 season to support Stefanie and their children during her treatment. Then he shaved his head in solidarity with his wife.

The gesture inspired smiles and reassurances that breast cancer can be beaten.

A generous choice

And because of the choice Stefanie Spielman made then, countless women undoubtedly have endured and defeated breast cancer, with the early-detection measures she urged and the therapies and services for which she raised millions of dollars.

She chose not to fight cancer from a private bunker but to do it as publicly as possible.

Through 11 years and four recurrences of her cancer, she educated the public through a journal, countless public appearances and kind gestures to women and families frightened by the disease.

Over that same time, the Spielmans raised four children and enjoyed a marriage more solid than most, let alone for couples with separate high profiles. For families enduring the emotional ravages of serious illness, that could be as helpful an example as her uncommon grace.

Stefanie Spielman’s death is a heart-rending loss. Nevertheless, the way she lived her life, cut short by breast cancer, will hasten the day when breast cancer has no more power to terrify.