Sandburg Student Turns Cancer Tragedy into Inspiration

Anastasia Scourtes originally got involved with Relay for Life two years ago simply because she felt it was a great cause.

The 17-year-old Carl Sandburg High School senior noted then on her Relay for Life webpage that cancer had not affected her or her loved ones at the time. Shortly thereafter, her father John Scourtes was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Anastasia raised about $500 leading up to the 2011 relay, while her father underwent treatment and surgery. Toward the middle of that summer, he recovered.

But the Scourtes’ fight with cancer wasn’t over. In fall 2011, Anastasia’s mother Chris Scourtes was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, which required stronger treatment.

“It was a cause that got very personal and meant a lot to me,” Anastasia said about the Relay for Life. “This year it’s a little more special because my mom passed away from cancer at the end of March.”

Chris Scourtes went through radiation and chemotherapy, completing the chemo around the 2012 relay, Anastasia said. For the 2012 relay, she raised about $750. A “summer of peace, stability, and the burden of cancer being lifted from our family's shoulders” followed, Anastasia wrote on her Relay for Life page.

But Chris’ cancer then returned in a much more aggressive form, a uterine carcinosarcoma, which grows in two types of tissue simultaneously. She died on March 22, 2013.

“At the wake, it was a terrible time,” Anastasia said. “It’s a terrible time still. But I knew it was an opportunity to turn it around and make it into something more positive.”

A donation box for the 2013 relay was put out at the wake, and $2,000 was raised on that day alone. Since then another $2,235 was raised through donations from family, friends and people she hasn’t ever met.

“Some people I don’t even know personally found out about this,” Anastasia said. “They read my story on my page and just decided to donate.”

Read Anastasia’s full story and donate on her Relay for Life page.

A particular quote from Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” created a strong resonance with Anastasia.
“‘Experience is what you get when you don’t want what you get,’” she said. “Keep a positive mind, try everything you can. Worst comes to worst, life will go on. Take all the bad things that happened to you and push it toward something positive.”

Anastasia said she is excited about the upcoming relay night.

“We’re raising money for a great cause,” Anastasia said. “It may not be the happiest cause, but being together with the community and knowing we are doing something really good for those 12 hours. That’s all worthwhile.”

Anastasia Scourtes will be the keynote speaker Friday night when Carl Sandburg High School Hosts the Consolidated High School District 230 Relay for Life.

Learn more about Sandburg's and Shepard's relays.

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