PennLive: Our parents’ final gift will help thousands of cancer families find peace

The McMahon Family published an op-ed in PennLive detailing their support of the nation’s first Cancer Respite Center! Read their piece about their parents’ final gift and how it will help thousands of families facing cancer find peace. Thank you to the McMahon’s for their generous support and for honoring their parents’ legacy through this project. Read it in full below or on PennLive.com.

Our parents’ final gift will help thousands of cancer families find peace | Opinion

By Bill and Maura McMahon

As we are in the holiday season, we reflect on the many blessings in our lives. We give thanks for the moments of joy, the people who uplift us, and the strength that carries us through life’s struggles.

Our family, like so many of you reading this, know all too well the many struggles that come with a cancer diagnosis. From the first moment seven years ago when we heard the dreaded word “cancer” uttered by our dad’s doctor, and then dealing with our mom’s diagnosis in 2023, our world was turned upside down.

Our parents’ cancer journeys changed our family forever. Amid our heartaches promulgated because of this disease, we learned to find gratitude even in the most difficult days: gratitude for compassionate care, for supportive friends and family, and for the simple gift of time together.

After our dad’s diagnosis, we were forced to reexamine our priorities and maximize our time. We leaned on our friends and community as a constant source of support as we navigated our grief. One of those friends who brought us into her village was Marci Schankweiler of For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation (FPS).

Marci founded FPS after her husband Pete lost his battle with cancer in 1999. Over the past 25 years, Marci and the FPS team have supported more than 12,000 patients, caregivers, and families with the gift of respite, including our own.

Now the foundation, based in Plymouth Meeting, is embarking on the next phase of Pete’s dream—building the nation’s first Cancer Respite Center, expected to open in 2027 in Hawley, Pa., adjacent to Woodloch Resort.

A respite isn’t a vacation. It’s an experience that is clinically proven to make a transformative impact on individuals and their families as they navigate the ups and downs of a diagnosis. The new center will be a place where recipients can focus on their mental, physical, spiritual and psychosocial healing as a family unit, together. With plans to serve more than 4,000 individuals annually with cost-free respite, it will be a home away from home, where, for a few days, cancer and all that comes with it can be put aside and patients can spend intentional quality time with their loved ones making lasting memories.

We have cherished memories of our own of our family gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving. Our mom always cooked a huge spread, and we all went around the table and said something we were thankful for. As we grew older, our answers matured like we did. We went from being thankful for things like Eagles wins and video games to our health and the cherished time we got to spend together.

The holidays are different for our family this year, as it is the first without both our mom and our dad. Alongside our dad, our mom taught us that a critical part of living a well-rounded life is leaving the world in a better place than we found it. That’s why we weren’t surprised to learn that one of her last acts was to give back to a cause that she believed in so fully.

At the end of her life, she realized that she had the opportunity to contribute to a legacy that will benefit this generation and generations to come.

Our mother made a parting monetary gift to FPS to help turn Pete’s dream into a reality. Her generous contribution will assist in the construction of a chapel at the Center and endow therapeutic programming for families on-site. Our parents’ legacy will be lived through the experience of every new family that walks through the Respite Center doors and the new memories they make there together.

This year as we went around the table, we were thankful for our parents who taught us what truly matters most. We’re honored to join them, alongside countless donors and elected officials, in helping For Pete’s Sake build the nation’s first Cancer Respite Center—a place of peace, renewal, and hope.

Because love endures long after we’re gone, time can never take away our legacy. What will yours be?

Join us in creating something lasting at respitetransformed.org.

Bill and Laura McMahon write from Ocean City, N.J.