Lisa Friscarella cannot remember the last time she cooked a meal.

After receiving a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis with a 2% chance of survival in late July, Friscarella has received “overwhelming” support from her neighbors, friends and family.

Her sister created a “meal train” to make sure Friscarella, 41, of Jeannette and her four children always have something to eat.

Neighbors deliver school uniforms and book bags for the children.

Friscarella’s co-workers at Hartman Eye Group in Hempfield, where she has worked for 18 years, wear teal bracelets that read “Fight for Friscarella.”

Friends call regularly to check in on her.

Loved ones drive Friscarella to her chemotherapy appointments at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in North Huntingdon. They stay with her for six hours while she receives three kinds of chemo treatment, sometimes leaving briefly to pick up coffee or food for her.

“Everyone’s fighting over who will take me to chemo,” Friscarella said with a laugh.

The family’s dogs — Lewy, 5, a boxer; Tito, 2, a chihuahua; and Myla, 3, a pit bull — comfort her when her muscles and bones ache from the chemotherapy.

Jeannette High School senior Payton Molter also has stepped in to help.

The 17-year-old quarterback and middle linebacker for Jeannette’s football team will contribute $20 from his own pocket for each touchdown he scores this season to help pay Friscarella’s medical expenses. Molter donates through a GoFundMe page created by one of Friscarella’s friends.

“Every game, I’m playing for her,” Molter said. “I’m trying to get as many touchdowns and as much money as possible so I can give it to her.”

A message about Molter’s fundraiser is read at each Jeannette High School football game. The fundraiser has inspired others to donate, including Molter’s friends and teammates and his father’s co-workers.

At the end of the season, he plans to present a check to Friscarella at the team’s banquet.

The diagnosis

Friscarella could not believe she had cancer.

“I was fine — traveling — and I woke up with a pain on my side. And I was like, ‘Oh, I must have pulled a muscle,’ ” she said. “So I let it go for a week, and then I started not being able to breathe.

“I went to the ER, and they did some tests, and I had fluid on my lung. So I went to another hospital, and they drained it and found out that it was cancerous.”

Doctors found tumors in Friscarella’s lung, all through her stomach, on her liver and on her Fallopian tubes, which were removed.

They were malignant mixed Mullerian tumors, an uncommon type of cancer, doctors told Friscarella.

She will never forget that July day, she said.

But her worries are outweighed by her determination to heal, which is fueled by her children.

“I have to be that 2%. I have four kids and a grandbaby that live with me and depend on me,” Friscarella said. “So I’m fighting like hell.”

Friscarella is a single mother to daughter Malaune, 9, and three sons — Nyzaiah, 21, Delmetrius, 16, and Khyrin, 3.

“At first, whenever I would look at them, I would cry. It was hard for me to be around them — thinking about what they’re going to go through. That’s the biggest thing,” she said. “I don’t feel bad for myself. I feel bad for the kids.”

Molter learned about Friscarella’s diagnosis through a social media post made by Nyzaiah, who is friends with Molter’s older brother. Living a few streets apart, the two families have always been friends, Molter said.

Molter knew he needed to do something to help. That is what the Jeannette community is all about, he said

“I feel like it’s a Jeannette thing,” Molter said. “You see another Jeannette family member hurting, and you go out and you do whatever you possibly can to give and help them.”

Friscarella mirrored this sentiment of the community and its small-town feel.

Friscarella grew up on Scott Avenue in Jeannette. She briefly moved to New Alexandria with her parents in 2002 but came back a few years later.

She moved into a home on Allwine Avenue, not far from Jeannette Community Park on Altman Road, where a swing from her childhood still stands.

“I moved back to Jeannette, because you always move back to Jeannette once you leave,” she said. “It’s like a known fact. Everybody says that. You always come back.”

Friscarella will undergo one more round of chemotherapy Monday and meet with her surgeon Thursday to discuss a tumor removal surgery.

A hysterectomy and surgery will be scheduled for October at UPMC’s Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh, she said.

She will be given about four weeks to heal before starting chemotherapy again.

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