Cancer Survivor Starts Scholarship Fund

At age 42, Johnstown native MaryEllen Locher has beaten cancer-twice.

The Chattanooga, Tenn., woman said she supports cancer research and knows she wouldn't be alive without it. But she has made it her mission to support children of cancer victims and educate young people about healthy lifestyles.

Locher is a graduate of CVHS and of the Pennsylvania State University. She is employed as a news anchor with the television station WTVC in Chattanooga.

She founded Children of Breast Cancer Scholarship Fund® to see that children who lose their mothers to breast cancer (ed. have either lost parents to breast cancer or are children of breast cancer survivors) can look forward to receiving a college education.

"I am after the kids ho have been so busy with their parent's illness, and maybe taking care of their sisters and brothers, that they may not have been able to qualify for another scholarship," Locher said in a telephone interview from Tennessee.

The fledgling scholarship program has collected $18,000 in donations, primarily from Locher's family and friends.

More fund-raising programs are on the way, she said, including a specially designed sterling silver pin that is on sale at Windber Medical Center.

Windber Medical spokeswoman Lisa Skotnicky said the scholarship is an idea whose time has come.

"If you think about how many women today are single parents and what percentage of those will be hit by breast cancer, what are the children to do after that point?" Skotnicky said in a telephone interview from Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center at the hospital.

Locher said she and her husband, David Burd, were inspired to take on the project after worrying about their own son, Alex Burd, who turned 11 years old just days before she was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2000.

Locher's breast cancer is her second cancer. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease 12 years earlier and treated with radiation therapy. Because of the previous treatment, radiation therapy was not an option for treating the breast cancer.

"I already had my lifetime supply for radiation treatment," Locher said.

Instead, she received an aggressive schedule of 14 chemotherapy treatments. Her latest test shows her totally clear of cancer cells, she said.

"I think they are more hopeful now than they ever have been before," she said.

Now Locher wants to give some of that hope to children who have lost their mothers to cancer. The children often go through an ordeal almost as trying as the breast cancer patient herself.

"They get so used to living form doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment, they don't think about their own futures," Locher said. "Their childhood is stolen from them when they have to go through something like this."

Besides establishing the scholarship program, Locher is working to set up a mentoring program to connect women volunteers with the scholarship recipients.

"They could write notes and maybe send cookies," Locher said. "Anything to cheer them on and encourage them as a mother figure."

The surviving children will also be encouraged to take part in a wellness program Locher is organizing for college campuses. The program will be presented as a festival, letting young people know the hazards of bad sleeping habits, having multiple sex partners and the abuse of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs. The importance of nutrition, exercise and stress reduction will also be covered.

"The American Cancer Society has set a goal to reduce the incidence of cancer by 15 percent by 2015," Locher said.

"They're not going to do that unless we reach the young kids and change their lifestyle."

Skotnicky said the breast care center will host the festival and may help Locher develop a prototype for the event.

Locher is also working through Memorial Hospital of Chattanooga and Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc.

Information about Children of Breast Cancer Scholarship Fund® and other programs is available on the Web site www.childrenofbreastcancer.org.

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