Fifth-graders fight cancer with faith

Woman is cancer-free after a school year of students’ prayers

As the school year comes to a close, some of Cathedral of St. Joseph School’s students have more than summer break to be excited about.

And so does Sandy Polsky, who just beat cancer a second time and attributes that feat in part to a school year’s worth of prayers from Cathedral’s fifth-graders. Ms. Polsky learned earlier this month that she was cancer-free, after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and given two years to live last June.

Just weeks before receiving the good news her cancer was gone, she’d learned that Cathedral student Molli Bell had been leading prayers for her at school since August.

“We start the day with a prayer circle, and Molli has faithfully prayed for her dad’s co-worker,” says fifth-grade teacher Barb Yarbrough, who herself is a two-time breast cancer survivor and, when she finally learned exactly who Molli was praying for, realized she’d known Ms. Polsky when they were both undergoing cancer treatment in the ’80s. “Sometimes I could just tell from her face, things weren’t going well.”

But one day a couple weeks ago, Molli’s expression had completely changed, Ms. Yarbrough adds. And on Monday, a cancer-free Ms. Polsky came to thank the class for their part in her healing.

“I think the prayer of children is really powerful,” she says, also noting that although she’s Jewish and the students who prayed for her are Catholic, she believes they all pray to the same God and that those prayers were answered. “ ... It made me feel so good and so loved. It meant so much to me.”

Molli has known Ms. Polsky all her life, and her dad, Casey Bell, has known her for most of his — ever since he began working as a teenager at St. Joseph Consolidated Insurance Services, where Ms. Polsky and his dad were partners and of which he is now president. Mr. Bell notes that his family began praying for Ms. Polsky right after her diagnosis last summer but that no one until recently had any idea Molli was also praying for her with her classmates.

“We’re proud,” he says. “It’s good to see her faith at such a young age and to see her using it already.”

Visiting Molli’s class on Monday, Ms. Polsky received cards from the students and brought them Oreos, as well as answers to questions they had about her cancer experience: Was she scared? What hospital did she go to? And — an inquiry prompted by a convincing wig — why hadn’t she lost her hair?

She also offered them a piece of advice.

“Don’t smoke. I smoked when I was young, and I’m sorry I ever smoked a day in my life,” she says. “We didn’t know then it was going to kill us.”

Really, though, she’s filled more with gratitude than regret.

“It is very much a miracle, and I think it’s because of your prayers I am where I am today,” she told the students. “So don’t stop praying.”

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.

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Labels: cancer, fifth-grade, newspressnow.com, prayer, Sandy Polsky