Starting a family is 'Worth the Wait' for young-adult cancer patients and survivors
Mike and Megan Scherer were high school sweethearts who grew up in Worthington.
Married, they moved to Westerville. Then a few years later, life changed very unexpectedly when Mike was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
“I was diagnosed at age 26,” he said, “and because of my life-saving treatment, we faced infertility.”
His oncologist recommended he freeze sperm because his surgery and chemo might impact fertility. He did, even though it was “quite expensive” and wasn't covered by insurance.
A few years later, he and Megan wanted to start a family. They went through more than two years of infertility treatments to get pregnant, and in 2017, they had a son.
“We were extremely fortunate to have our son,” said Megan, “but insurance didn’t cover any of our fertility treatments. When we finally became parents, we realized the joy of parenthood. We knew we had to help other young cancer survivors afford fertility treatments or adoption.
“During COVID, we decided that we wanted to help other young cancer patients/survivors with their fertility journeys, so we established Worth the Wait, a 501c3, in 2021.
“It was a turning-lemons-into-lemonade situation,” said Mike.
To date, they’ve awarded “sizable” grants to 89 young cancer patients in 31 states.
“The grants help pay for fertility preservation, adoption, fertility treatments and surrogacy,” said Megan.
“Worth the Wait provides financial assistance to lessen the financial burden for adolescents and young-adult cancer patients/survivors who need to preserve fertility (eggs, sperm, embryos) before chemo and radiation, or start a family in survivorship through fertility treatments, adoption or surrogacy. We also do advocacy and education work in the field of oncofertility.
"For instance, Mike recently spoke at an FDA conference about cancer and fertility, and we've spoken at several national events. There are even five Worth the Wait babies!” she said.
“This is the most rewarding work we’ve ever done, and we are so happy to deliver hope to young cancer patients struggling with so much. We hope adolescent and young-adult cancer survivors who receive help from Worth the Wait have a fulland vibrant survivorship,” said Mike.
“One where cancer doesn’t take away their hope of parenthood in the future. It’s hard enough to survive cancer at a young age, but encountering roadblocks in survivorship is extremely discouraging. We want to eliminate these roadblocks for young-adult cancer survivors who dream of parenthood.”
Drew Bracken grew up in Upper Arlington, was a TV news anchor for years and is a longtime freelance writer for Gannett newspapers. If you have a suggestion for a future inspirational profile, email Emily Rohozen, entertainment and things-to-do editor, at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Helping young-adult cancer survivors, Worth the Wait has a purpose