Cancer patient faces physical, emotional, financial challenges of disease
Mina Donato won last year’s physical fitness competition at Penn State’s Fayette Campus. The senior administration of justice major regularly worked out two hours daily and walked five miles every day. Donato’s physical prowess made her proud.
So the 34-year-old single mother of three thought little of a lump she found while working out last semester.
“I thought I pulled something,” said Donato. “I put my hand there and there it was. It was a pretty big lump too.”
The Uniontown woman waited a couple of weeks, hoping it would go away, but Donato said one of her daughters told her she ought to have the lump checked out.
Donato did, and found she had cancer in her right breast. She was surprised. Then another shock: she is a carrier of a hereditary gene that accelerates cancer growth and makes it more likely that cancer will return.
“My oldest daughter (16) has it in her head I’m going to die,” said Donato sadly. “My middle daughter (13) is in denial and my youngest daughter (11) keeps telling me not to leave her.”
“As of now, I don’t know if I’m going to be alive in five years. I’m trying to stay positive, but it doesn’t always work out that way,” she said.
Her doctor performed a lumpectomy and took out 18 lymph nodes, five of which were already cancerous. Sinus surgery and a root canal followed, and she withdrew from college because everything became too draining and she didn’t want her hectic life to affect her grade point average.
Donato said she has to be healthy to undergo the chemotherapy she hopes will free her body of cancer. That process may start today, but with one problem after another, Donato isn’t so confident.
She said the longer she waits, the less her chances of survival. But with the Christmas season approaching and unexpected treatment-related bills to pay, Donato said she’s been forced to consider intentionally putting off chemotherapy for two weeks in hopes of getting a temporary job to make ends meet.
“There are a lot of little things that most people wouldn’t think about,” said Donato.
She needs to get new cotton underwear, convert her bathtub into a shower and buy bleach to disinfect her home daily.
“With no immune system, I’m not going to be able to fight off (illness) like everyone else,” she explained.
Formerly of Philadelphia, Donato moved to the area about four years ago. She started working toward her degree, and hoped to finish the administration of justice program and head on to four more years of school, specializing in forensics.
She knows what it is she wants to do, citing work with the Innocent Project as her dream job. The program, started in 1992, helps wrongfully convicted people gain their freedom through the use of DNA testing. Donato’s goal has a personal meaning, she said. She believes a friend in Philadelphia is currently wrongfully imprisoned.
“For me that would be the most messed up thing – to be in jail for something I didn’t do, taken away from my family and my friends. I can’t imagine that,” said Donato.
Yet she is grappling with the possibility that she could be permanently taken away from family and friends.
Donato said she is trying to get through the trying times with good humor, but it isn’t always easy for her. Cancer aside, the biggest problem for Donato is her lack of money.
On Friday, friend and fellow student Amy Martin threw a fundraiser in the gym at Penn State’s Fayette Campus. Unfortunately, said Donato, they had only a week to plan the benefit concert so the turnout was “depressing.”
Martin said that when she found out that her friend of two years was ill, she felt compelled to do something to help her. A junior liberal arts major, Martin herself performed at the concert with her friend Izzy, under the name “Izzy and Punchy.”
Martin said there were some advance ticket sales on campus, and local bands who played at the concert sold tickets to fans in the community. In addition to music, those who paid the $10 entrance fee were offered a buffet from Ruse’s Roost in Hopwood. Martin said the eatery agreed to donate half of their profits for the evening to Donato.
“I think it’s a good way to raise money for Mina,” said the Connellsville resident.
Donato said the lack of attendance at the fundraiser means that she will likely need to seek out a temporary job.
“I don’t know when I’m going to start chemo. Everything’s so draining.”