DELAWARE COUNTY, Ohio — A cancer diagnosis can put your life plans on the back burner—plans, like starting a family.
Preserving fertility or saving for adoption may be out of the cards for financial reasons, especially on top of medical bills. A Genoa Township couple knows this firsthand. That's why they've made it their mission to help others.
By their photos, it looks like high school sweethearts Mike and Megan Scherer have had it good. They married on the beach and now have a 5-year-old son, Elliott.
But it was after they tied the knot their world unraveled. At 26 years old, Mike was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
“It was a shock that it happened so young,” he said.
After going through chemotherapy, cancer was eventually behind them. They focused on starting a family. But they would meet another hurdle: infertility.
"We went through about two and a half years of infertility treatments to have Elliott,” said Megan. “He was our miracle. We were on our very last round and then said, ‘if this doesn't work, we had already met with an adoption agency’ and lo and behold Elliott showed up!”
They tried for another but were unsuccessful. Turning their heartbreak into help for others, they started Worth the Wait in 2021. It's a non-profit to help cancer patients keep their dream of having a family someday alive.
So far, they've helped 16 people. Morgan Robinson is one.
“When you guys selected me, chose me, gave me this opportunity, it’s like I feel worthy,” Robinson said.
Robinson said the money she received to freeze her eggs before treatment got underway gave her a sense of control.
“I can plan this future, I can have this set in stone and you know all of a sudden now I have baby names in my phone,” Robinson said with a smile.
"We want to make sure cancer survivors get past cancer and then live a vibrant life that is the way it would have been if they didn't have cancer at all,” Mike said.
Worth the Wait was recently awarded a grant from The Columbus Foundation. These dollars will go directly to two young adult cancer survivors living in Central Ohio who need financial assistance to adopt a child.