Shirley rallies around mom, grandma fighting stage 4 cancer

She is, by every account, the kind of woman who puts everyone else first. But now, the Shirley community is making sure Tracie Scicchitano doesn’t have to fight alone.

Friends, neighbors and strangers have come together to raise nearly $6,000 for the beloved wife, mother and grandmother who is battling stage four colon cancer — a diagnosis that came without warning and swiftly upended the 51-year-old woman’s world.

The fundraising effort was set up by Scicchitano’s close friend, Linette DeMaio, who established a GoFundMe page for Scicchitano after watching the family struggle under the mounting weight of medical bills, treatments and the emotional toll Scicchitano’s illness has taken on them.

“Anyone who knows Tracie knows that while she may be small in stature, her spirit is immeasurable,” DeMaio wrote on the campaign page. “In the face of uncertainty, through chemo treatments and countless surgeries, she has chosen hope over fear and determination over doubt.”

The road has been anything but easy.

Scicchitano was diagnosed only eight months after getting married — a sudden turn in what had been one of the happiest chapters of her life. In the months since, she has endured aggressive chemotherapy, gallbladder removal, a colon resection and, most recently, a liver resection.

Medical expenses have piled up quickly, with constant hospital visits, medications and ongoing care creating what the family describes as a crushing financial burden on top of an already devastating emotional one.

The GoFundMe campaign is intended to help offset those costs and give the family the freedom to focus their energy on Scicchitano’s care healing rather than bills.

“Our hope is to lift the weight of financial worry so she can focus on what matters most,” DeMaio wrote.

_{Top: Tracie, second from left, with her family (courtesy of GoFundMe).}