LAKEWOOD, Ohio — 3-year-old Ruby Stitak of Lakewood has taken difficult steps in a journey she’s getting out of like a pair of uncomfortable shoes.
“It’s been very challenging,” says Annie Stitak, Ruby’s mom.
On July 1 of last year, the then 2-year-old girl was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor, which most often occurs in young children.
Before the diagnosis, Stitak says she had “that mother’s intuition that something was wrong” after experiencing multiple episodes of Ruby crying while grabbing the back of her head. According to the Mayo Clinic, Medulloblastoma starts in the lower back part of the brain.
“That was just our world turned upside down,” Stitak explains. “It was just like everything changed and it was so difficult.”
Stitak says her daughter was in the hospital for 78 days over a course of nine different hospitalizations in just five months. To be present with Ruby, Stitak and her husband, KC, had to leave their youngest daughter, just 3-months-old at the time of Ruby’s diagnosis, with family.
"That was very difficult because it’s just like so hard to say goodbye,” Stitak shares. “I would cry every time cause I just was like 'alright, like I'll see her in two weeks.'"
TURNING TO THE GATHERING PLACE
In a time of isolation and fear, Stitak turned to The Gathering Place, a community support center for those impacted by cancer, to help her walk through their journey.
“I think in our post-COVID world it's really hard for families to feel a sense of community,” says Adelle Gates, a child life specialist in the children’s programming department at The Gathering Place.
Through one-on-one support calls and virtual meetups, Gates was a companion to the family each step of the way.
“She helped me with mindfulness and practicing that,” Stitak says. “To be present in the moment … She helped ground me, I think.”
Ruby’s path involved surgery to remove the tumor, four rounds of chemo and a stem-cell transplant. Today, Ruby is done with intense treatment and Stitak is confident it worked.
“She survived cancer!” Stitak says with a smile.
The family describes The Gathering Place as a great resource and cheerleader during their passage through dark times.
“It's a place of community and hope and connection,” Stitak shares. “I'm living proof that wholeheartedly helped me get through the hardest moments of my life.”
Ruby will now get scans every three months for the next two-and-a-half years to make sure health continues to trend in the right direction.
NATIONAL CANCER SURVIVORS DAY & "RACE FOR THE PLACE"
People around the nation will be celebrating stories like Ruby’s this Sunday, June 4, on National Cancer Survivors Day. The Gathering Place is holding their annual “Race for the Place," a 5K and 1 Mile run/walk fundraiser, at Beachwood Place Mall to commemorate the day.
Race for the Place is TGP’s largest fundraiser of the year.
“It’s really critical to help us,” says Gates. “All our services are free of charge, so to continue to offer all these free services to the community of Cleveland, to families like the Stitaks … to keep that free of charge we need the support of the community.”
In 2022, The Gathering Place served nearly 200 individual family and children participants. The organization reports to have supported 50,000 individuals since it's founding in 2000.
You can register for Race for The Place or donate to The Gathering Place here.
