Grill Competition Supports Those Battling Brain Cancer

Suzanne Ciani had driven the route to her father's house dozens of times. But on this day she got off at the wrong exit and was lost for an hour and a half.

"When I got home, I blew it off," she recalled of the incident last summer.

Then it happened again. Taking her niece home after aerobics class, she refused to turn left on the road home even though that was the right way to go.

"The next morning I had this huge headache and I don't have headaches," she recalled.

After checking herself into the hospital, Ciani and her family were confronted with the news.

She had brain cancer.

"They walked in my room and said you have a tumor," Ciani dsif of that day in September 2011. "And I said 'What do we do?'"

A Hillsborough courts representative supervisor for the Salvation Army, Ciani, has been receiving treatment for her cancer over the past year. There is no cure for brain cancer. A combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation have slowed her cancer's progression.

"I went into the hospital, they did surgery and I was out in four days," Ciani said. "As far as I’m concerned I'm a walking miracle."

Ciani, 52, continues chemotherapy on a weekly basis.

Her large support system of family and friends are among Ciani's greatest sources of strength, she said. And she hopes to extend that to others facing brain cancer.

It was that thought that sparked the Suzanne Ciani Brain Cancer Foundation. Founded in March 2012, the organization hopes to provide community support and financial assistance for people with brain cancer.

On Saturday, May 12 the foundation will host its first Odessa Masters of the Grill Competition to benefit the foundation.

"This money will go to help people who may need to pay a co-pay," Ciani explained. "Or help people who need help keeping their lights on."

Ciani's son, Chris, is the lead organizer of the event.

"My family and I love to cookout," Chris Ciani said. "So we thought that a grilling contest would be a fun time and a great event to have for our first
benefit for the foundation."

A $5 donation is requested as an entry fee to Saturday's event. That will include samplings of all competitors. A 30-foot inflatable obstacle course, 30-foot inflatable bungee basketball game, corn hole, Karaoke and face painting will also be available to event goers.

The event will be held at the Odessa Organic Farmers Market, located at 8701 Gunn Highway. Ciani's husband, John, runs the market.

"All and all it will be an amazing time and a spectacular way to start off Mother's Day weekend," Chris Ciani said.

Suzanne Ciani knows first hand the isolation that comes with a brain cancer diagnosis.

While the media is flooded with information about more common cancers like breast and prostate cancer, brain cancer is talked about very little, Ciani noted.

"When you tell someone they have breast cancer or prostate cancer there is a glimmer of hope that they'll be able to complete their treatment and survive," she said. "And they have huge fundraisers for majority of the cancers and there is not that same support for brain cancer research."

She hopes events like the Grill Master Competition will begin to change that locally.

"Family is my support system, God comes first, but those hugs are so important," she said. "And that's what I want people in the community to know that they have someone to call and talk to and come up to the market if they just need a hug."