Teens show strength in kicking cancer, too

By Paula J. McGarvey for The Montana Standard - 07/29/2008

Mairissa Peoples, 17, was diagnosed with myxoid malignant fibrous histiocytoma last year, and is recovering from cancer surgery at her Butte home. Peoples is wearing her Relay for Life team’s “Mairissa’s Army” T-shirt and holding a basketball signed by the Stanford University women’s team that was given to her during cancer treatments.

Cancer doesn’t discriminate. From infants to the elderly, it can appear in a variety of forms in a host of different locations.

The good news is that, thanks to cancer research, over the last several decades advances in cancer therapy have significantly increased survival rates.

Three amazing Butte teens are living proof that kids can kick cancer and go on to lead normal lives as cancer survivors.

Jessica Kolpin, 14 Jessica Kolpin doesn’t remember having cancer, but the lasting effects of the life-saving treatments she endured as an infant remain with her over a dozen years later. Kolpin was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia at 4 months old.

Chemotherapy treatments and a bone marrow transplant saved her young life, but affected her growth, leaving her shorter than her peers. Her vision was also affected, and a lung infection requiring surgery left telltale scars.

All serve as daily reminders to Kolpin that she is a cancer survivor, though she said she doesn’t think too much about her collection of battle scars.

“I’m just used to it,” the soft-spoken teen said, with a smile.

Kolpin will be entering middle school this coming fall and approaches life like your typical 14-year-old, texting friends, talking on the phone and listening to music on her MP3 player.

Her family hasn’t forgotten the determination the tiny 4-month-old infant showed when confronting cancer, nor have they forgotten the support they received from the local community and from the American Cancer Society during their ordeal.

“They helped us out tremendously,” said Lisa Kolpin, Jessica’s mother.

In an attempt to give back for the some support they received, the family became involved in the Relay for Life when Kolpin was only 2 years old. Kolpin has been attending ever since.

For Kolpin, the Relay for Life serves as a chance to be with other people like herself.

“I like seeing all the people and hearing about what kind of cancer they had,” she said, adding that it was good to hear about other people who have survived the disease and continue to lead normal lives.

Kolpin said her favorite part of the Relay for Life is the survivors lap, where cancer survivors unite and walk together.

“It makes me feel good to know I’m walking with other survivors, and they’ve been through practically the same thing as me,” she said.

Lisa Kolpin said she’s proud of her daughter for the strength she showed battling cancer as an infant and for the involved, Relay for Life volunteer she has become.

“She’s grown up to be her own person,” she said.

Mairissa Peoples,17 Mairissa Peoples isn’t letting her crutches slow her down as she recovers from a hip-replacement and additional bone grafts after a recent surgery to remove a cancerous growth from her upper leg.

The ambitious and optimistic teen has her sights set on playing basketball for the Butte Central girl’s team when the school year begins.

“I will if I have anything to do with it,” she said.

If her courageous battle with cancer is any indication, Peoples should be back in uniform in no time.

Peoples remembers how her ordeal with cancer began.

Active in sports, it was first thought that she had pulled her hamstring last fall. Despite therapy, the condition would not resolve. Not wanting to lose her competitive edge, she went out running one day.

“I got about three miles out and my leg went numb,” she said.

Further diagnostic testing revealed a mass surrounding her sciatic nerve. Specialists at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital confirmed it to be myxoid malignant fibrous histiocytoma, a rare form of cancer, said Peoples, who described her initial reaction as “shock.” “I didn’t realize what was about to happen to me,” she said Peoples started chemotherapy in November of 2007 in an attempt to shrink the tumor so it could be surgically removed. When the first line of chemo- therapy drugs didn’t work, a second round of chemo- therapy was employed and proved successful in shrinking the tumor.

The regimen involved Peoples checking into the hospital for five days every three weeks over a five-month period.

“I had to get used to that icky feeling all the time,” she said, adding that some days were worse than others.

“I was like, ‘I hate this. I don’t want to be here. I want to get this over with and go home,’” she recalled.

Peoples also had to adjust to a well-known side effect of certain chemotherapy drugs — losing her long, brown hair.

“The hair loss was the hardest part for me. Being 17, your hair’s a big deal,” she said.

With the tumor shrinking, radiation therapy was added to her chemotherapy regimen.

“It was worse than chemo for me,” she said, complaining of fatigue and stomach upset. The treatments continued Monday through Friday for five weeks, she said.

By April 2008, the tumor was receding and surgery was scheduled for April 9. The surgery replaced her hip and grafted bones, rebuilding areas lost to cancer.

“She had to be kept in a body brace for three months,” said Barb Peoples, Mairissa’s mom.

Peoples reflected on facing a cancer diagnosis as a teenager.

Staying at the Ronald McDonald house in Seattle, Peoples said she found the interaction with other young cancer patients to be helpful for both her and her family.

“Some of the friendships we’ve made are going to be there forever,” she said.

She also said she had to face heartbreaking sorrow, when one of her fellow patients did not survive their battle with the disease.

Peoples said she also noticed a distinct change in her perspective, post cancer.

“I was no longer worrying about what I was going to do Friday night, but worrying about if I’d be here five years from now,” she said. She also takes little for granted.

“It’s rare at such a young age to really appreciate the little things in life,” she said.

“We tell her at 17 she’s already learned a life lesson that some people don’t learn until much later,” Barb added.

With that maturity has come a desire to give back to the community for all the support both she and her family received during her illness.

For this year’s Relay for Life, People’s had formed a Relay for Life team marching together in “Mairissa’s Army,” with her sister Quinn and friend, Saidee Johnston, acting as team captains.

“It was something that I can get other kids my age involved in to make people aware that its just not older people that get cancer,” Peoples said.

Peoples has just reached her three month anniversary of being cancer free and is pleased to report that her prognosis is good.

“I’m so proud of her for how she’s handled it,” her mother, Barb, added.

And as a teenage cancer survivor with a winning attitude, Peoples has much to be proud of.

Stephanie Boucher, 18 Stephanie Boucher can still remember being diagnosed with cancer at age 9, and how the frightening experience began.

“I was playing with my step sister and we were jumping on the waterbed and I hit my knee on the hard edge,” she said. When the pain didn’t go away, her father took her to a walk-in clinic for an X-ray. Something wasn’t right.

“I looked at the X-ray of the bone and there was this big white thing,” she said.

Boucher was referred to a specialist in Helena, who sent her on to Spokane.

“I really didn’t understand what was going on,” she said.

The diagnosis was osteosarcoma and by this point, Boucher was no longer able to walk.

She remembers being pushed through the pediatric cancer ward in a wheel chair at the Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, Wash.

“I looked in the play area and there were little kids with no hair that looked weak. I started to cry because I realized what was going on,” she said.

Boucher started chemotherapy that day and with two weeks, her hair was thinning.

“I was traumatized when it started falling out,” she recalled.

After months of chemotherapy, the tumor had reduced in size enough to operate.

“They were surprised that they didn’t have to amputate my leg,” she said.

Boucher had an artificial knee implanted with metal rods radiating through her bones reaching to her ankle and her hip.

“Recovery went well. Physical therapy was really tough. They had me up walking on my leg the very next day,” she recollected.

Post-operative therapy completed, she had two good years. Two years later in 2001, a recurrence was spotted. The initial cancer had spread to Boucher’s lung.

“I had to go through more chemotherapy,” she said. The treatment worked and further surgery to remove the shrunken cancerous nodules had to be performed.

At 14, another scare occurred when a tumor was found on Boucher’s rib. This led to more surgery, but resulted in Boucher remaining cancer-free for four and one half years.

“In October it will be my five-year anniversary. It’s a big leap in my war against cancer,” Boucher said.

Boucher said she has been part of the Relay for Life since her diagnosis, and said that she always has fun at the event.

“It gives people awareness. It lets people of Butte get together to raise money for cancer research,” she said.

This year Boucher said she was asked to help co-chair the event, which is focusing on kids and cancer.

“It’s been really cool to go out and teach people about cancer and let them know that we are winning,” she said.

Boucher’s support system was so large, she had to form two Relay for Life teams, just to fit them all in. They call themselves, “Strolling for Steph.” “I have a lot of people who support me,” she said, with a smile.

Kolpin, Peoples and Boucher will all be speaking at this year’s Relay for Life event and leading the way for all participating cancer survivors in the event’s Survivors’ Lap.