Helping Hands: Stage4 Ministry Comforts Cancer Patients One Bag at a Time

Stage4 volunteer Vic Pallotta was at a Veterans Affairs medical center when he saw a woman bundled up on a warm day. He asked if the air conditioning was affecting her. No, I’m a Stage 4 cancer patient. I’m always cold because of the treatments, she said. He told her about Stage4, a nonprofit based out of St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Copley that provides cancer patients with comfort bags, which include blankets.

“She jumped up and gave me the biggest hug. She goes, I got one of those bags at Summa. The blanket’s the best thing I ever got. You tell those ladies back at church that I love them. God bless them,” recalls Pallotta.

Since it was co-founded in spring 2021 by Pam Harris and my late aunt, Sherry Petryszyn, Stage4 has distributed over 2,000 bags to new cancer patients starting chemotherapy.

Sherry and Harris met when they were operating room nurses at Parma Hospital. In spring 2021, they were both undergoing Stage 4 cancer treatment. The pair began making blank cards to thank those who were kind to them during their cancer journey and decided to sell them in the cafe at St. Luke’s, where Harris attends. They made $200 — and that became the seed money to start Stage4. It now distributes bags to 10 hospitals and infusion centers, including select Summa Health locations, Western Reserve Hospital and more. There are now about 40 active Stage4 volunteers — many volunteers have been through or are completing cancer treatment and offer input on customizing the bags.

“We knew how frightening it was,” says Harris. “We wanted to help ease people’s minds and give them things in the bag that were helpful to us.”

Items in the bags include a stress ball, fuzzy socks, tea bags, a mug, honey sticks, a puzzle book, a water bottle, blank thank you cards, Bible verse cards, a stone painted by St. Luke’s Sunday school kids and more. All items are accompanied by handwritten tips from patients, such as Queasy Drops, gummies, mints and sugar-free lemon drops with a tag reading, Sherry said mints and gummies helped to settle her stomach. Terry says try Queasy Drops.

Cleveland Clinic Akron General McDowell Cancer Center social worker Dena Hunt says sometimes cancer patients experience nausea, a metallic taste or changes in how foods taste, so having a candy or drop can help. With the treatments taking two to eight hours, the puzzle books occupy patients. Some sleep with the blankets from the bags Hunt helps deliver. “It shows that they’re cared for,” says Hunt. “It’s a moment in time where they can feel some joy.”

St. Luke’s rector Dan Morgan’s brother, who died of cancer, received a bag — he was blown away by it. “We’re constantly getting testimonies of people saying how much their life has changed,” Morgan says.

Giving back helps patients who are volunteering too. Even when she was on oxygen, Sherry would make cards at her kitchen table, surrounded by her dachshunds, George and Goober, before she died in July 2021.

“It was good mental therapy for her,” says her husband and my uncle, Ted Petryszyn.

“When we were making cards, we weren’t thinking about test results, scans,” Harris adds. “We were just sitting there, talking … that’s one thing you want — to be normal.”

More people are becoming interested in volunteering with Stage4, but some live near Cleveland. The team is considering expanding to a second northern location. It needs support to reach more people. Find out how to help Stage4 at stage4ministry.com.

Nonprofits need our help more than ever. With uncertainty surrounding federal funding, those that rely on it are looking to increase other funding streams. Now is the time to step up, donate, volunteer and support nonprofits. Your contributions have an impact.

“If you’re having a bad day,” says Rebecca Daubner, an Akron General McDowell Cancer Center social worker, “that can change the entire day for you when somebody does something nice.”