From Latrobe Bulletin: Community leader’s cancer fight gave him strength

This story first published in Latrobe Bulletin.

Chances are if you’ve attended a Greater Latrobe-Laurel Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting, volunteered for Steelers Fest or the Great American Banana Split Celebration, or ran in the annual Cupid’s Chase 5K, Jeff Minkovich of Unity Township, Westmoreland County, needs no introduction.

However, if that’s all you know about him, there’s a bigger story to tell.

He began working for Community Options Inc. nearly nine years ago. The organization’s mission is to develop housing and employment support for people with disabilities.

After serving as the manager for Spirit Airlines at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport for five years, he worked as a bartender at DiSalvo’s Station Restaurant. A friend of a friend who was working for Community Options suggested he apply. Minkovich was hesitant.

“I was like, bro, I have never done that type of work. I’ve never worked with individuals with disabilities,” he said. “I have no experience. I’ve been in the airline business for 20 years.”

Even though it wasn’t his plan, he thought he’d give it a shot, thinking it would be a stepping stone until he can figure out what he really wants to do. He was hired as a direct care provider but eventually moved into the organization’s day program, where he would pick up individuals and take them for all kinds of outings in the community, including picnics, zoo visits, miniature golfing and outlet shopping.

“It was a blast, and I got paid for it,” he added.

And then, he heard the word no one is ever really prepared for. “Cancer.”

Minkovich wasn’t.

He was diagnosed with Stage 4 adrenal and lung cancer. He had an inoperable tumor the size of a softball in his right lung. It was Mother’s Day 2018, and his mother was standing right in the room when he got the news.

After that, it all went quickly. Within weeks, he had a biopsy and was seated in front of his oncologist on June 9. That’s when he learned he was in Stage 4, operating was out of the question and he could “try” chemotherapy. His options weren’t great, and his oncologist didn’t have a great bedside manner, according to Minkovich.

No matter what he chose, his prognosis wasn’t ideal.

“He said, well, six months without treatment, 18 with. And, I said, we’ll see about that because you don’t know me from Adam,” said Minkovich. “So, we’ll see about that.”

Minkovich didn’t waste his time, and within a month of being diagnosed, he started treatment.

He started chemotherapy, and it didn’t take long until he felt its effects.

“I got sick real fast. Real fast. I tried to — after the first treatment — keep working. Yeah. Physically, I could not do it, but I kept trying,” he said.

After about three treatments, he said he wanted to get another opinion. He made an appointment with the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Philadelphia. He immediately liked their method — a full body approach treating not only the body physically but also mentally and spiritually.

“They were so awesome, and I was there for three days. And, the end result was they said the chemo is not working for you,” he said. “It was still continuing to grow, and I had it in my lung and my adrenal glands, and both were Stage 4. And I actually looked through a microscope and the cell stuff. I could physically see it growing.”

Although the doctors didn’t want to give false hope, they shared with him an alternative to chemotherapy: immunotherapy.

“He said it’s a trial. He said that if you are eligible for it and if it works, that is your only hope,” he said.

Minkovich came home and informed the oncologist about what he learned about immunotherapy. Although he wasn’t happy about it, he had to do what was right for him.

“I’m gonna do whatever I feel comfortable with,” he said.

Thinking back on the three months he spent in and out of the hospital in unbearable pain, he knew he was making the right decision.

“It was atrocious. I would not wish that pain on my worst enemy,” he said. “It was so unbearable. I mean, I was so drugged up … and I was still trying to do this all on my own. I’m still living by myself.”

Despite his illness, he continued to work in the community when he could. He was still on the board at the chamber but was unable to make meetings. He was not working at this point. He attended some meetings and even made it to Banana Split in August.

“I had a cane. I had a bald head, and I was 80 pounds, and I looked horrendous. But I made it,” he said. “I had to still show my support to my community regardless.”

After meeting a different oncologist, Dr. Gauri Kiefer, while in the hospital, he asked if she would take over his case and shared his thoughts on immunotherapy.

“I just loved her from the beginning. She just had an aura around her, like, you could feel God’s presence,” he said.

Kiefer thought immunotherapy could work for him if he was eligible. After having bloodwork done, he was thrilled to learn he was a prime candidate for the trial.

According to Minkovich, it didn’t start working right away, and when he was released from the hospital, he entered hospice. It was October. His birthday was Oct. 11, which he spent in hospice. A hospice nurse came to his house and caught him because he was so weak. At that point, she said you can’t be living alone at this point, and he moved in with his mother. He was told he’d see Thanksgiving, but not Christmas.

Then it happened.

“After I think the second treatment, I woke up one morning, and — that in itself is an improvement — I said, ‘Well, I’m not in any pain,’” he recalled.

So, to make a long story short, he said the immunotherapy was working.

His neck scans showed a decrease in cancer. Now, he points out, there were still side effects but not nearly as severe as the chemotherapy he had gone through.

He progressively started to get better.

“They kept me on the treatments, but probably two years into the treatments, I went into remission,” he said.

Doctors kept him on treatments even during remission because during studies, they learned that taking subjects off the drug resulted in the cancer coming back in four to six months.

“So, they kept me on this treatment for four years,” he said. “Now meanwhile, that December, that Christmas, they said I would never see, I came back to work a week before that Christmas.”

He recalled he would get his treatments on Wednesdays every four weeks.

“I’d be here bright and early Thursday morning. No sweat. Around the time I was going home on Friday, the side effects would start,” he said. “Saturdays would be pretty crummy. Sundays were not too bad. And Monday morning, I was right back here where, again, my boss was like, ‘You’re amazing.’”

However, in October 2022, the cancer did come back.

“It was just a small tumor on my right lung, and the doctor said it was operable,” he said. “So, two days after my birthday, on October 13th, I was wheeled into surgery, and I was in that operating room for 6½ hours.”

Interestingly enough, he recalled seeing a demonstration of Independence Health System Latrobe Hospital’s state-of-the-art robotic surgical center for cancer treatment, never once thinking it would ever be used on him.

“But here we are,” he said. “It all comes full circle.”

He said the surgeons got it all and the operation put him back into remission. He has not had to have any treatments and is now 21 months in remission. Last time, he was in remission 18 months.

It’s not a memory he enjoys thinking about, but it’s the story he feels an obligation to tell.

“I believe if my story helps someone else keep fighting, then it’s worth telling my story,” he said. “That’s the story I want to get out there and how I overcame that to continue to be the community advocate I was prior to my illness.

“My body has changed, but my mind has not. … I guess it kind of has because I look at things in such a different perspective now.”

Due to his diagnosis, he had to take on a new role with the organization. He was unable to physically perform certain activities of his job, so he became an administrator. It wasn’t exactly what he wanted to be doing, but it allowed him to keep his job and his medical benefits, which was imperative.

“So, I’ll admit it was boring. Oh my gosh. I was so bored,” he said.

There were two administrators, and he said there simply wasn’t enough work for the both of them, so he would circulate through the office doing additional training and seeing what else he could do for them. In addition, he took on the role of organizing the 5K race, and he’s chaired the event every year since.

Currently, Minkovich serves as fiscal liaison and work incentive practitioner, doing benefit counseling for individuals and showing them how to set financial goals for themselves and meet them.

Once again, it wasn’t his plan, but it was God’s plan, according to Minkovich.

“[God] puts people in front of us that we need to be in our path,” he said.

For him, that individual was Stephen Hall, executive director of Community Options. Along with Gabriel Monzo, executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, Minkovich said, “they are the two best people that I’ve ever worked with. Gabe always had my back. Stephen always has my back.”

According to Minkovich, it was Hall who made those accommodations for his illness and allowed him to continue on with Community Options.

Through it all, Minkovich said he just feels incredibly grateful to the people who have supported him on this long road.

Last November, about a year after his surgery and a year in remission, he participated in his first-ever walk for lung cancer at Excela Square, where those who supported him joined him all wearing shirts with “Team Jeffrey” on the back, including the surgeon who operated on him.

“And we all walked and I was like, ‘This is something that we never thought that I was gonna be able to do.’ And here I am, you know. And it was kind of good feeling. And the person who operated on me and got me to that point is right here,” he said.

That is why he does anything he can to help, because all of this had to have happened for a reason.

“And the reason I feel in my heart, why God kept me here, I feel I need to give back … I feel I need to give back not only in my job. Since that time, I have gotten these promotions, and I can help these individuals with so much more,” he said.

He also feels he needs to continue to give back to the community.

“I’m involved in so many things in this area. Anybody who’s having a ribbon cutting, I’m normally there. And a grand opening, I’m normally there, representing the chamber. I have since my illness, you know, I’ve become the vice chair. I’ve become the chair. I have served 13 years on this board, and I continue to serve as long as the members want to keep me there.”

In addition, he volunteers for anything he can. He serves on the board for the Latrobe Community Revitalization Program and is there for any events they have. He also volunteers for GOAL Magazine and the Shop With a Cop event.

“Any place I can help in my community, I believe that’s that’s why God kept me,” he said. “And that’s why I wanted to tell my story because I feel if my story inspires one person to keep fighting, then it was worth it.”

He feels in his heart that he was kept around so he could continue to be a benefit to his community and the individuals he serves, too.

“I told Stephen, ‘You’re never going to get rid of me; they’ll have to carry me out of here on a stretcher,’ ” he said.

In the meantime, he is doing his best to live his best life. He still gets scans every three months and sees his oncologist regularly.

“I’ve learned that I have to live between scans. I live my life to the fullest, and you live between scans because you never know what the next one’s going to say,” he said. “But I see things differently. I see things. I don’t just look at them. If that makes any sense. There’s a value in everything, and it gives you such a different perspective on life.”

He also enjoys spending time with his roommate, a nearly 6-year-old German shepherd named Zuko. Named for the character in “Grease,” one of his favorite musicals, Zuko enjoys eating ice cream.

And even though cancer is ugly, he now knows the result can be something beautiful.

“It’s difficult sometimes when you don’t feel so good. But I always kept this in a really good place,” he said. “I always kept a positive attitude. My faith got me through — and my friends and family.”

Others in the series: 

Laura Magone’s Wedding Cookie Table community: A labor of love (from the Mon Valley Independent) 

New Castle native sows seeds of knowledge, positivity (from the New Castle News)

Faces of the Valley: Volunteering and firefighting is family affair for Lower Burrell woman (from TribLive.com) 

She came back a different person to help people and live well (from Soul Pitt Quarterly)

A Joe of all trades helps his North Side neighbors (from ‘YaJagoff!’)

Pittsburgh environmental activist’s ‘sustainability salons’ foster community (from The Allegheny Front)

A Penn Hills candy factory is making life sweeter for folks on the autism spectrum(from Pittsburgh Magazine)

‘Give Back King’: Go-getter Jamal Woodson a leader on and off the court (from Pittsburgh Union Progress)