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Relay For Life: Kind-hearted Columbiana girl gets tough to fight tumor
By Ed Runyan
BOARDMAN
Hannah Tringhese of Columbiana, a kindergartner at Struthers Elementary School, is a “kind-hearted girl, and she has a love for Jesus.”
“She has a love for other sick kids. She donates her toys and balloons to other people,” said her mother, Sarah, who teaches at the school.
But she also has a tough side, which is going to help her as she battles a rare brain tumor with which she was diagnosed about six weeks ago.
“She gave her tumor a name. She calls it ‘Captain Barf Brains,’” her mother said.
“I call it that because it’s in my brain, and it makes me barf,” Hannah, 6, said.
“And we’re going to knock it right out of there, right?” her mother asked. “Right,” Hannah said.
The Tringhese family was part of Friday night’s kickoff at Center Middle School of the American Cancer Society’s Boardman Relay for Life, a celebration of the lives of people with cancer and a fundraiser for cancer research and other services.
Her father, Tom Tringhese, said Hannah has just started treatment, so the family of four – they also have a daughter named Abby, 4 – is just “seeing how she reacts to treatment.”
But Hannah has been an inspiration to everyone.
“We realize what a blessing she’s been,” Tom said. “At times when we’ve been down, she’s joking and making us laugh, which is helping us get through it.”
“This is all new to us,” Tom said of the 24-hour relay, the survivor’s lap at the beginning and the other traditions of event.
“It’s nice because it’s a nice community feel,” Sarah said of the relay. “It’s nice for Hannah to meet people who have walked down that road before her and meet people she can continue to know in the future.”
Hannah will be a featured guest at an 11 a.m. event today in which superheroes will honor two child cancer survivors and Hannah, still a patient. Each will be honored as “Superkids.”
John and Sally Freaney of Boardman also walked and enjoyed the events Friday night, in celebration of John’s cancer-free diagnosis after learning he had cancer of the tonsil and lymph node in spring 2014.
He learned his cancer was one of the most-treatable, but the treatment is one of the most difficult to withstand.
“They fried my neck and throat,” he said of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
Something that made the process even harder was being away from home, John and his wife, Sally, said.
John had just gone to Columbia, Mo., to work at the time he was diagnosed after experiencing trouble breathing while running.
Sally, meanwhile, had to stay behind for her job, especially since she was the only one with health insurance, John said.
“The best part is I was declared cancer-free Oct. 29, 2014, and I returned home Oct. 30,” John said.
John said doctors told him he would not be able to work during his treatment, but he did.
“He’s tough, tough as nails,” Sally said.
“Working was the best, so I didn’t sit around feeling sorry for myself,” John said.