Roxborough Teen Overcomes Cancer to Attain Eagle Scout Status

Moments so important that they demand we remember not only their date, but the precise time of day they confront us, don’t come around very often. For Roxborough native Kelly Friel, March 24 at 7:43 p.m. was one such moment: her son Shawn became an Eagle Scout.

Although just four percent of boy scouts reach Eagle Scout status, it still might seem odd that a mother, even a uniquely prideful one, would be so affected. But for her Shawn, being named an Eagle Scout wasn’t just the culmination of 12 years of hard work and dedication—it represented something much more.

Last July, while planning his Eagle Scout project, Shawn discovered he had bone cancer. So unlike most scouts, who fend off burgeoning social lives and senioritis en route to reaching the organization's highest ranking, Shawn dealt with chemotherapy, long hospital stays, and strenuous physical therapy.

"To see any kid accomplish this always meant a great deal to me," says Kelly, a financial analyst for a security company who, until last year, oversaw a Cub Scout troop of her own. "To see my son do it, when he’s had to deal with so much? It’s just amazing. Shawn’s got a lot of determination, and it’s confirmed that [my husband] Leo and I raised a really special kid who just puts one foot in front of the other and continues on, even when things don’t look good."

After an intense nine-month period that included 30 weeks of chemo, Shawn’s cancer is now in remission. Initially, it started out as shoulder pain, but for a lacrosse player at Archbishop Carroll, aches and pains weren’t exactly new. Still the pain continued to get worse, and so the Friels went to visit a specialist who had previously treated Shawn for a broken leg. After an MRI, Shawn was sent to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where a July 13 biopsy revealed he had Osteosarcoma in the abdominal bones surrounding his lungs. Within a week, he was in chemotherapy.

"I’m told this type of cancer is common in 15 to 21 year olds, because that’s when the area is growing and most active," says Shawn. "The seriousness of it didn’t really hit me until my hair started falling out. I was in the shower shampooing my hair, and it just started coming out in patches. I was crying, and it really affected me, but then I realized I’ve got to just deal with this thing. It’s been tough at times since then, no doubt, but in general, I’ve just tried to do what had to be done."

Attaining Eagle Scout

Shawn’s list of "what had to be done" included finishing his Eagle Scout.

"When I first heard he was diagnosed, I didn’t want to push the issue," says David Craighead, Shawn’s troop leader. "But Shawn has a lot of fortitude and wanted to just keep on trucking."

Oddly, even before he was diagnosed, Shawn had been planning to collect movies and games for the teenagers at CHOP. Once he was actually admitted, he realized how needed such a project was.

"Most of the entertainment they have is targeted at younger kids," he says. "There was really nothing there for teenagers, and since a lot of the kids in there are in there for months on end, I thought this project made sense. You kind of get tired of watching Dumbo after the sixth time."

Most projects are cut off when a scout turns 18, but due to his circumstances, Shawn, who turned 18 Dec. 2, was given an extension. He enlisted the help of several friends, who put donation boxes in their schools and churches.

"Shawn was going aggressively at his cancer and had been in and out of the hospital, so he had to delegate a lot of the work," says Craighead. "But really that’s perfect—that’s the by-the-book way to do one of these projects. It shows leadership when you organize people and get them to do parts of the project for you. That’s one of the main points of the whole thing."

In all, Shawn collected a total of 861 movies and video games for systems like Play Station 2 and Nintendo 64. Many of these items will go in a library that is planned for the oncology floor, while the rest will be placed in the Connelly Center, a resource hub available to the entire hospital.

"CHOP was helpful. They had the storage equipment, and actually, they were remodeling, and the desire was there to do something like this," Shawn says. "They just needed someone to collect and organize everything, and I was able to do that for them. I experienced being in the hospital first-hand, so I’m happy to be able to provide these things, because I know how boring it can get in there."

Receiving a Helping Hand

With Shawn in and out of the hospital over the last nine months, the Friels got a great deal of support from their community. Kelly said neighbors brought her meals and family and friends offered to drive her daughter Caitlin to brownies and school. Shawn’s friends even held a fundraiser for him, and his lacrosse team renamed themselves "Shooting for Shades," a takeoff on Shawn’s nickname—which caught on due to his penchant for transition sunglasses.

"We’ve gotten a lot of support and it just shows you the good in people," Kelly says. "There’s a lot of negativity in this world, but this has shown us what so many people in our community are all about. They’ve pulled together to provide support and really help us through."

Due to his hospital stays, Shawn has missed a lot of time at school over the past year. He’s lost count of exactly how many days but estimates somewhere in the 60s. However, he says everyone at Archbishop Carroll has been great about helping him along to make sure he still graduates on time.

"It’s been tough, but I am keeping my grades up somewhat; they’re all in the 90s and high 80s," Shawn says. "Everyone at school was so helpful. They told me you don’t need to be stressing out about school; you’ve got a lot going on, so we’ll make sure to set you up to graduate on time. Students came to CHOP to help me catch up to speed."

In fact, Shawn says that with so many people being so nice and offering help, a residual benefit of this whole experience emerged: it forced him to be more outgoing.

"I’ve become more social since this happened. I’ve almost had to. Everyone’s been so supportive of me, I’ve felt I need to reach out in turn," he says. "At one point, I went to as many senior classes as I could to say thank you to all the people who supported me. I’ve become close with people, some of whom I never would’ve imagined I would have."

Looking to the Future

A changed outlook on life isn’t the only positive Shawn has taken away from his experience. He’s also discovered that he wants to go into physical therapy.

"Before this, I was expecting to go into engineering, but then as I started to do my own physical therapy, I got really interested in the field," he says. "It’s one of the few professions out there where you get to see your work to completion. You see in the improvement as your patient goes through it, and that seems rewarding to me."

In the fall, Shawn will be leaving home for Cabrini College where he’ll be a student in the physical therapy program. And although Shawn still has to maintain a healthy diet of doctor appointments—monthly check x-rays, and quarterly oncology visits, not to mention physical therapy—he says he’s going to "just keep going forward, living life to the fullest."

"We’ve been through so much, so I’m happy that we’ve gotten to this point," says Kelly. "He’s been talking to recently diagnosed kids, sharing his experiences and answering questions. I see him doing a lot of this in the future—volunteer work. It’s funny, when he first got diagnosed, he didn’t want to talk about it. But now he sees the importance and wants to give back."

In reflecting on everything he’s been through, Shawn encourages those who know people who get sick with cancer to just act normal around them—i.e. don't act like they’re delicate objects defined by their ailment.

"Initially, I was scared a little by the way my sister reacted. She’s 10 now, and one day, we were all just sitting there and she asked my parents, ‘Is Shawn going to die?’" he says. "It was aa sobering moment for me to hear that from her, but of course, we all assured her I’d be fine, so she said ‘So I don’t have to do everything for him? I can make him do stuff on his own.’ And it’s funny, she’s able to tease me about it, and will say things like, ‘Shawn, you have two legs. Just go get it yourself.’ It makes everything more normal, and honestly it’s better that way."