Mitch Barton celebrates Christmas
Katherine Mansfield/For the Observer-Reporter
Mitch Barton with his mother, Christine
Photo courtesy of the Barton family
David and Christine Barton with sons Mitch, right, and Jared
Photo courtesy of the Barton family
Mitch Barton and his girlfriend, Daisy Hicks, play with Mitch’s dog Digby. Daisy is a nurse at Washington Hospital and has been a great source of knowledge and care for him and the family.
Photo courtesy of the Barton family
Throughout his treatment, Mitch Barton has kept up with his favorite activities, including fishing.
The Barton family wants something besides presents under the tree this Christmas.
They’re praying for healing.
Mitch Barton, 22, of North Strabane Township, was diagnosed on Dec. 19, 2018, with cancer.
On Dec. 26, he will undergo his last round of inpatient chemotherapy at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, completing a nearly yearlong treatment regimen that also included surgery and radiation.
“I’m hoping for clean scans on his next report,” Barton’s mother, Christine, said.
Barton is, too.
“I want to complete this protocol and go back to work. I need to go back to work because this is driving me nuts,” said Mitch, an industrial mechanic at International Paper in North Strabane Township, with a laugh.
As Christmas nears, the Bartons reflected on the past year – the most challenging the family has ever faced – and how Mitch’s diagnosis of Ewing sarcoma, a rare cancer that has struck at least six teens and young adults in Canon-McMillan School District and has prompted a state investigation, has changed their Christmas celebration this year.
“It’s definitely going to be different than it has been. Traditions we used to have have gone by the wayside, but we’re glad to have each other all here,” said Jared Barton, Mitch’s older brother.
In years past, Christine hosted a Christmas Day family gathering and a New Year’s Day party.
This year, the Bartons will spend Christmas Day at Christine’s brother’s Peters Township home, and the New Year’s celebration may be postponed because of Barton’s chemo treatment.
But one thing will remain unchanged: the family, longtime members of Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Muse, will attend a Christmas service.
“Christmas has always been special in our eyes, the celebration of the birth of Jesus. We’ve always been faithful and prayerful people, but this whole past year, everything we’ve been through and gone through, when you’re faced with such a hardship, it puts everything into perspective,” said Christine. “And really, the only thing you set your mind and eyes upon is Jesus, the greatest physician and healer, and the hope that he’s going to be able to heal your ailments and get you through these rough times.”
Mitch’s faith has been reignited over the past year.
“This whole situation has brought me closer to God, and I’ve definitely become stronger in faith. It’s taught me also that life isn’t fair,” said Mitch, who reads books and watches videos from Christian and inspirational authors. “But you’ve got to fill your mind and body with hope, because you can’t be around negative things and hope to live a positive life.”
Christine said Mitch’s diagnosis and battle to beat the disease has brought the already close-knit family closer together.
“Since January, there have been so many nights that we’ve laughed and cried together, we’ve had in-depth conversations about religion, our faith, things we’ve never had to talk about until now,” she said.
Mitch also is humbled by the support he’s received from the Canon-McMillan community, family, girlfriend, friends and strangers, who have held fundraisers, cooked meals, organized blood drives, and sent cards, letters and gifts.
For example, hanging on the family’s Christmas tree is a yellow and black ribbon-shaped ornament. A family friend, Megan Thomas, sells the ornaments on her Etsy shop, Mae Street Designs, for $12 and donates all of the money from each to Mitch to help cover medical expenses.
And Rosemary Nikas, whose grandson, Luke Blanock, a former baseball teammate of Mitch’s who succumbed to Ewing sarcoma in 2016 following a three-year battle, brings dinners every month, prepared by All Saints Greek Orthodox Church’s Philoptochos ministry.
“It’s been wonderful. It’s been a big part of keeping my spirits up and hope strong. The support group is definitely my backbone in this fight,” Mitch said.
Throughout his regimen, Mitch, an avid outdoorsman, has kept up with his favorite activities, including hunting and fishing, when he feels well enough.
He recently shot a doe and a buck, and donated the meat from the buck to the Greater Washington County Food Bank.
Itching for projects, he also completed an electrical installation in a shed for a friend.
He also spends time with his pit bull-mix, Digby, a 55-pound ball of energy the family adopted in April after Barton’s diagnosis.
Jared and Mitch are the only children of David and Christine Barton. Two years apart, both played football at Canon-Mac, and Mitch also played on the baseball team.
Jared said his younger brother has always been tough, battling through sports-related injuries including an ACL tear in his junior year that cut short his high school football career.
“But this has been the ultimate challenge,” said Jared. “It’s impressive, the way he’s handled this, and how strong he’s been throughout this process.”
Mitch has spent much of 2019 at Children’s Hospital as an in-patient and out-patient. He selected a protocol used by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in a clinical trial. The regimen is aggressive, and uses stronger medications delivered over a longer period of time.
The chemo and radiation treatments left him with gastro-intestinal issues – during one stretch, he threw up for weeks – and he’s battled low blood counts, fever and other side effects, but Mitch said he has had more good days than bad days.
Christine is looking forward to the new year, when Mitch is done with treatments, can return to his job, move into a new place, and continue with the life he planned before it was interrupted by cancer.
Her son, she said, “has been a true warrior, an inspiration to us all. He never gives up.”
Mitch and his family have built relationships with other cancer patients and, said Jared, “joined a community we had no intentions of ever being a part of, but has become a big support group for all of us.”
For his birthday this year, Mitch started a Facebook fundraiser for CURE Childhood Cancer.
Jared said Christmastime last year was a low point in the family’s lives.
“It’s kind of crazy that his diagnosis came so close to Christmas, but I’m glad it happened at this time of year because that’s the time of year we’re around a lot of family and they could go through this with us,” said Jared.
So this year, Christine isn’t worrying about Christmas gifts. Cancer, she said, has changed her family.
“It’s taught us never to take another day for granted, to live life,” said Christine. “Tomorrow isn’t promised for anyone.”