Peer mentors support stem cell transplant patients

As a volunteer in our Stem Cell Peer Mentor Program, Shannon shares her experiences and offers encouragement to children going through treatment.

When Shannon Dowty underwent a stem cell transplant at Children’s Memorial to treat a cancerous mass in her lung at age 12, she says she felt a real sense of isolation. Few kids her own age could relate to the effects of a therapy which, while beneficial, results in the temporary compromise of the patient’s immune system. This means several months of frequent clinic visits and/or hospitalization, as well as the necessity to limit exposure to others to avoid the risk of infection. Even after discharge from the hospital, these children and young adults need to avoid crowded areas and take medications which can cause unpleasant side effects.

"When I was sick, I didn't meet or speak to a single person my own age in the hospital," says Dowty, who twice faced the return of cancer. "I sometimes felt closer to the hospital staff than I did to the other patients, and it was often devastatingly lonely."

Now 24 and cancer-free for seven years, Dowty is one of several volunteers in the hospital's Stem Cell Peer Mentor Program. The program connects long-term childhood stem cell transplant survivors with children and young adults who are undergoing or recovering from the treatment. 

"The program allows patients to talk with someone who has walked in their shoes, and is invaluable in terms of support," says Meg Crum, a social worker in hospital’s STAR program (Survivors Taking Action & Responsibility), which follows the health of pediatric cancer survivors as they transition into adulthood.

A stem cell transplant is a highly effective therapy that provides patients who have not responded to chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments with the best chance to conquer cancer from its roots.

The hospital's stem cell transplant program was established in 1992 to treat not only patients with cancer, but those with immune deficiencies, metabolic diseases, sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. The program is a component of the Siragusa Transplantation Center at the hospital.