Hundreds gather for Austintown Relay

By Ed Runyan | June 11, 2011 at 12:05a.m.

Mother shares pain in telling kids she had cancer

AUSTINTOWN

Mary and Doug Schneider of Austintown found the most difficult part of having cancer was telling their daughters, Melanie and Mandy, that they had it.

Mary’s father, Richard Walters, died of lung cancer three months after his diagnosis in 1968, when Mary was 14 years old.

“To tell my daughter at about the same age (14) that I had cancer is probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life, and having to tell them the same thing about their dad was gut-wrenching,” Mary remembers.

Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, and Doug was diagnosed with chronic lymphocitic leukemia in February 2008. The cancer is in remission for both — something Mary credits to improvements in cancer medical care in recent decades.

The Schneiders, along with hundreds of others, participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life on Friday night that continues at AustintownFitch stadium until 6 p.m. today.

The ACS raises money for cancer research and education through relays.

Mary said she feels blessed to have been diagnosed in 2005. Before that, the drug she used, Arimidex, was not available, and improvements had been made in the type of radiation she received and testing that was done on her.

Those benefits were not available in the 1990s, when two of her friends — one from Austintown and one from Boardman — died from breast cancer, Mary said.

“I firmly believe advances in technology and research helped me,” Mary said.

Doug had been ill with a virus that resulted in swollen lymph nodes in his neck, but the swelling didn’t go away. A test determined that it was cancer, but for more than two years, he didn’t receive treatment — during what the doctors call “watchful waiting.”

Last August, a test determined Doug needed chemotherapy, so he underwent six treatments that each required about six days for treatment and recovery.

“I’m in remission,” Doug said.

The Schneiders have been advocates of healthy eating for close to 20 years — they don’t eat sugar, white flour, dairy or processed foods and focus instead on vegetables, fruit and whole grains.

They believe their healthy diet helped them both survive, but Mary says they will only know the answer to that when they find out from God.

“We’ll find out someday but not real soon,” she said.

Patti Hunt of Austintown says she was an ordinary kid who got sunburns growing up, even though her father died of skin melanoma, and two cousins had also gotten it.

But Hunt says being diagnosed 10 years ago with skin melanoma caused her to take warnings about spending time in the sun more seriously.

“My doctor says don’t expose your skin between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.,” Hunt said, adding that she wears long pants and shirts whenever she’s out side, which is a lot.

And when she talks to young people at her church, she tells them not to use tanning beds, also at the advice of her doctor.

“I lift up my shirt, I show them my big scar and tell them, “Don’t use tanning beds.’”