Teacher encourages mentors to guide breast cancer journeys
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HOWLAND -- When Megan Schellhorn was told she would need a double mastectomy due to breast cancer, she figured it would be a quick surgery and she would be back to normal in no time.
What she experienced, however, was quite different.
Megan said her journey began in May 2021 when she found a lump in her breast. She went into her doctor's office the next day and had a mammogram and ultrasound performed. Everything came back OK.
The lump grew over time. Megan said she was consumed with worry over it six months later.
She went back to her doctor and told him that the lump was bigger and didn't feel right. After another mammogram and ultrasound, her doctor decided to do a biopsy on the lump, which came back positive for HER2+ breast cancer.
At 39 years old, Megan had a bilateral (double) mastectomy.
Megan, who lives in Howland and has taught media at Hubbard High School for 13 years, underwent 18 weeks of chemotherapy prior to the surgery. The purpose was to shrink the lump to ensure a successful outcome.
Megan's children were 3, 8 and 11 and the school year was ending when she was diagnosed, so some of the chemo took place over the summer.
When it got closer to the school year starting back up, COVID-19 still was a big concern and her oncologist suggested her three children begin the school year remotely to make sure that chemo and surgery stayed on track. If one of her kids brought home the coronavirus, her treatment would have to be postponed.
"We knew how difficult school from home was, but none of them hesitated to make that sacrifice for me," Megan said. "Trying to keep them on track with school was challenging, but we made the most of that extra time we had together.
"Their teachers were so supportive, and time went really quickly. They went back into the classroom the week of my surgery."
Following the surgery, Megan had five weeks of radiation five days per week as well as an immunotherapy infusion, which would target the cancer. Every time she went in for treatment, she was getting four drugs: two types of chemo and two immunotherapy drugs, which continued a full year after the chemo ended.
Her treatment ended at the end of June 2022.
In response to what she went through, Megan created an organization she named Pink Lights the Way.
She said she had two reasons for doing this:
1) Everyone around her did so much for her and her family that she wanted to somehow pay that forward.
2) She realized the importance of the support of other women who had been in that exact type of situation. She discovered that there is a unique bond between a breast cancer survivor and a breast cancer patient because of the common understanding of what the patient is going through.
MENTORS APPLAUDED
Pink Lights the Way raises money to provide mentors for women going through treatment by pairing breast cancer patients with breast cancer survivors, and provides the families of breast cancer patients with care packages, meal delivery and activity packets for children.
The organization is supported through fundraisers.
At Hubbard High School, her school community has supported her by planning several fundraisers.
A "pink out" junior varsity and varsity volleyball game at Hubbard High raises money with a concession stand, raffle, Chinese auction and 50/50 raffle.
A one-mile cupcake walk at Eastwood Field, where 650 people participated this year, raises money through sponsorships and registration fees.
During a home Hubbard football game, cheerleaders collected money.
"We have a nice network of cancer survivors. Once you go through something that difficult, you look for something positive to come out of it. It's hard to ask for help when you're in treatment, but it gave us such great joy to support women in our own community," she said.
"Each of my children handled it differently. My middle child was really concerned about me losing my hair. We were both worried about that, and she held my hand when I had my head shaved.
"My husband was with me every step of the way, and at every appointment at University Hospitals. He took care of me when I was sick, our house, our kids and got me anything I thought I might be able to eat. He held everything together."
Megan's mother, Maggie Gintner, said, "The day we got the news about Megan's breast cancer was shocking. I didn't know why Megan got breast cancer, but then I knew -- she turned it around to help others. All she went through she used to help others. Through Pink Lights the Way she can do for others what they did for her."
For more information about the group, visit pinklightstheway.org.
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