When Emily Sheehan, now a senior at Lenape High School, came up with the idea last school year to have her volleyball team hold a fundraiser for breast cancer research, she never thought that she wouldn’t be able to take the court when that special game was played.
Sheehan spearheaded a Dig Pink volleyball match last week during Lenape’s game against Seneca High School. The team wore special pink t-shirts during warm-ups and sold those same shirts and other refreshments to help raise money for the Side-Out Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to researching more efficient ways to fight breast cancer.
Sheehan herself has not played on the team this year. Early last summer, she began having pain in her hip. She went to the doctor, where she was diagnosed with a tumor in late June.
A biopsy later revealed that the tumor was benign. While Sheehan received that good news, she felt resolved to visit the Side-Out Foundation’s research facilities and hold Dig Pink, even though she’d be unable to play on the team in her senior season.
“I had to call (head coach Matthew Tavares) in the middle of the summer because I was so broken down about it,” Sheehan said. “This would’ve been my fourth year on varsity. I had to tell him that, look I can’t play; I just had this major surgery. But I still want to do this Dig Pink thing and make a difference with our team and those with breast cancer.”
Sheehan met with Nila Straka, a representative from the Side-Out Foundation at a volleyball tournament in Philadelphia last winter. She immediately became interested in the organization and got her team to put together a fundraiser to help support the organization.
Sheehan made a trip to the foundation’s research facility just before the start of the school year. She said that the difference in their research compared to other facilities made Side-Out different than other organizations.
“I went around their lab, and I got to see all of this amazing technology they have for what they use for breast cancer,” she said. “All of this actually makes a difference.”
The Side-Out Foundation was founded in 2004 and its focus revolves around finding alternative ways to treat breast cancer. It conducts clinical trials, all with FDA-approved drugs.
“Their research is so far leading,” Sheehan said. “They just had a meeting over the summer about their clinical trials that are successful.”
Sheehan doesn’t have breast cancer and she acknowledges that her situation is nothing compared to what many other suffer through. But after her experiences with her tumor, she has a new perspective on cancer research.
“I don’t want to say I know how it feels, because I don’t have breast cancer,” she said. “But I can experience what someone might go through being worried and not knowing what’s going to happen.”
The last few months have been a roller coaster for Sheehan’s entire family. Emily’s mother, Sharon, said that her daughter’s perseverance and leadership abilities truly came out with this event.
Even though she can’t play, she still got her team to work together on a goal,” Sharon said. “She motivated them from the beginning. She said ‘we’re doing this’ and they all said ‘OK.’”
In addition to the Dig Pink game, the team also held a 5K walk and run at Laurel Acres Park recently. Sheehan gathered sponsors such as Cold Stone Creamery and Pancheros to help sponsor the event.
Not only has Sheehan put together this fundraiser, but she also remains entirely involved with the team. She has been to every team’s practice and game this season. She has been a leader and a coach to the team, yelling out encouragement and instructions to her teammates.
In return for her efforts, Sheehan’s teammates rewarded her in more ways than one. With their largest crowd of the year cheering them on, the Dig Pink game turned into Lenape’s first win of the season, capping off a day that Emily will remember for the rest of her life.
