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By Josiah Lockley On the night of June 11, Robin Scungio walked across the stage of the Scottish Rite Cathedral to accept her diploma. Few people realized how tough that walk was. Robin is a member of New Castle High School�s class of 2004. A little over two years ago, she found out that she had brain cancer. The week before graduation, she began to have trouble with her foot, a complication of the tumor. Just minutes before the ceremony, things got worse. A teacher went running to her parents, Carl and Susan. Robin�s foot kept turning over, and she needed help walking. Instead of opting out of the ceremony or having someone walk her across the stage for her, Robin took off her heels. Two students helped her up the steps and, as she walked barefoot across the stage, the audience gave her a standing ovation. �It felt good, I couldn�t believe they�d do that,� Robin said. �I just couldn�t believe it.� Robin�s mother, Susan, thinks the ovation was an acknowledgment of �the problems that she�s been going through, and the courage that�s she�s had.� �It made me proud,� Susan said. PROBLEMS BEGIN For Robin, the problems began at the end of her sophomore year. Robin�s grandmother had recently died after a six-month struggle with complications from diabetes. Shortly before her grandmother�s death, Robin began experiencing what her family thought were migraine headaches. Her mother thought they were the result of a naturally stressful situation. �We�d give her a Tylenol and she was fine,� Susan said. One particular Saturday in February, though, the Tylenol wasn�t working. Robin�s family took her to Jameson Hospital and learned the reason for the headaches. �We thought she�d just get a couple extra strength Tylenol and thought everything would be fine,� Susan said. �Next thing we know, she�s being flown to Pittsburgh.� Tests at Jameson revealed a mass on Robin�s brain. She was taken to Children�s Hospital in Pittsburgh, where more tests showed the mass was indeed a tumor. Surgery revealed that the tumor was malignant, and Robin quickly began to undergo an aggressive regimen of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Every day for six weeks, the Scungios traveled to Pittsburgh �We spent most of our summer in Pittsburgh,� Carl Scungio said. NORMAL GIRL A normal high school girl thrust into an extraordinary circumstance ��perhaps that�s the best way to describe the 18-year-old daughter of Carl and Susan Scungio. She likes �N Sync (especially Justin Timberlake), and her favorite movies are �The Princess Diaries� and �Finding Nemo.� Because of the tumor, she has trouble walking without help from her family and a little difficulty speaking, but that doesn�t stop her eyes from lighting up when she talks about dance lessons or the musicals she was involved in. She laughs when her dad teases her older sister, Colleen, about her grades. Characteristically, Robin stayed optimistic during her chemotherapy and radiation treatment, even as it left her tired, nauseous and without hair. �It was a hard thing,� her mother said.�� �No it wasn�t, I never cried about it,� Robin replied. �She never cried about a lot of things,� her father added. �At first I thought I�d be horrified,� Robin said. �But then I just thought it would come back prettier than it was before.� After the initial six weeks of treatment, she began once-a-month overnight therapy. Even as her treatment began to run into her junior year of high school, she carried on like normal, taking dance lessons at Dance Implosion, performing with the Candy Canes dance line, and acting in school musicals. �She danced at every football game as a Candy Cane, even when she didn�t have any hair,� said Bryana Servedio, who also was a member of the Candy Canes. �She�s someone everyone in this city should admire.� �WE THOUGHT WE WERE IN THE CLEAR� In October of her junior year, an MRI revealed that there was no trace of the tumor on her brain any more. Things returned to normal at the Scungio household for most of her senior year. Robin made visits to Children�s for her monthly MRI. Colleen enrolled at Slippery Rock, and Robin was accepted there in February. A few days after hearing that news, though, she got a call of a different kind, this time from the hospital. �They called me at home, I was all by myself, and they told me they found something on my MRI, they didn�t know what it was,� Robin said. The tumor had returned. There would be more intensive treatment. More chemotherapy. �We had thought we were in the clear,� Susan recalled. The news got worse ��the tumor did not respond to the treatment. She began taking an experimental drug in an attempt to stop the growth of the tumor.� That didn�t work, either.� How does someone respond to that kind of news, not once, but twice? �I cried a lot,� Robin said. �There were tears, of course,� Carl said, �but one day she stopped, and she said �this isn�t stopping me.� �� �SHE�S STUBBORN� Two weeks ago, her family was watching TV when Robin decided she wanted to go to sleep. Her parents, both notoriously heavy sleepers, were already asleep, and Robin couldn�t wake them up. �The next thing I know, her sister is yelling at us asking why we didn�t wake up,� Carl said. Robin had decided to crawl upstairs by herself and go to sleep in her sister�s room. �She�s stubborn,� Colleen said. �That�s the Italian side,� Carl joked. �That�s how Robin is. She believes that she is going to beat this.� BELIEF Belief is something that runs deep in the Scungio family. Members of St. Vitus Church, their faith has been something that has helped them through this time.� �If you didn�t have faith, I don�t know how you could get through something like this,� Susan said. For Susan, who had two miscarriages prior to Colleen and Robin, her children are a blessing. �Once she found out she was pregnant with Colleen, every Sunday at church we lit a candle, and I believe that�s how we got these two,� Carl said.� Carl, who works as a repairman, mentions some of the people who have been moved by Robin�s story. �I could be down to almost West Virginia, people will ask, �if you don�t mind, can I put your daughter on my prayer list?� � �It�s pretty cool, knowing there are so many people that care so much,� Robin said. When asked if she is ever mad at God for her situation, she simply replies �yes,� with a laugh. �I just feel like I did something to make him mad at me. I wondered what did I ever do? Why is he trying to punish me like this?� Her mother understands. �You can�t help it, but you wonder, why us?� she said. �But then, why not us? This is something that no one should ever have to go through. But you have to believe that there is a reason for it; we can�t really find a reason right now. �I think it�s supposed to make our family stronger, and they picked Robin.� �Because she was the only one in our family that could handle it,� Colleen added. NOT GIVING UP Robin is on a different drug now, one with a 25 percent chance of shrinking the growth, and a 50 percent chance of stopping or slowing its growth, and she�s still optimistic. She is planning on attending Slippery Rock in the fall to major in early childhood education and minor in social work. �She�s bound and determined that this is going to stop,� her father said. �You have to think positive and not give up,� Robin said. �If you�re thinking positive, only good things can happen.� For her family and friends, any other attitude would be out of character for Robin. �She just loves life for the sake of loving life,� Servedio said. �That�s Robin. She�s amazing.� Reader Comments Amy Hartman (8/8/2026) As a former writer at The New Castle News, I know how hard it is to capture someone's personality, struggles and triumphs within the limitations of the written word, especially in such trying and emotional circumstances. What a touching article. Great job Josiah Lockley, keep up the good work! Frank Ross (8/3/2026) I have known the Scungio family for over thirty years. I just wanted to say "God Bless them" they have so much spirit and I know they will overcome this. Larry Soles Jr. (8/2/2026) As someone who knows Robin and her sister from school, this touches me in a way that most people can't understand. So to Robin, and her family...keep up the fight, and even from 13,000 miles away, you're all in my thoughts. I believe in the power of a person and their will. Phil McCahill (8/2/2026) That was an excellent emotional interview. I could barely handle the feelings rising within me while reading this at work. I imagine this was a difficult story to write as well as tell. Thank You and Robin "may the force be with you". Add a comment  |
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