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The news went from bad to worse. Shortly after DeeAna Bedics of Lehigh Township was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, tests revealed the cancer had spread to her liver. Over more than a year, she had a mastectomy, received six months of chemotherapy, had liver surgery, underwent radiation treatment and had a hysterectomy.
But Bedics kept thinking about patients on the other side of curtains at the infusion center. “You can’t help but hear what others are going through,” she says. Some had no family support. Others worried about money. All were stressed. “Stress can make you want to give up,” Bedics says. “It bothered me that people worried about not making the mortgage payment or buying medication when they needed to concentrate on getting healthy and being strong.”
When she felt strong enough herself, Bedics founded a nonprofit called Pink Pumpkins Coins 4 Chemo. She throws a Halloween bash that collects food and gift cards for cancer patients. A Christmas party provides holiday festivities and a ham dinner along with gifts, gift cards, stockings and food baskets containing holiday meal staples. Flea markets sell donated items and bake sale treats. “I try to do at least 10 events a year,” Bedics says.
Donations go to LVHN’s Prager Patient Assistance Fund, which helps cancer patients offset nonclinical, everyday expenses. “DeeAna is not just my patient, she’s an inspiration to me,” says medical oncologist Ranju Gupta, MD, with LVPG Hematology Oncology and a Pink Pumpkins board member. “She’s very passionate, and her energy is infectious. She helps hundreds of patients a year.” “I’m almost six years cancer-free, so I feel I’m over the hump,” Bedics says. “For a cancer
survivor, every day is a holiday.”