After hearing that his business colleague's wife was battling stage IV breast cancer, Reed Mattingly and his wife, Heather, dedicated his company golf tournament, Rainbow Restoration Charity Golf Classic, to raise funds for moms battling stage IV cancer.
In 2012, Reed Mattingly was shocked when he learned that his business colleague Glenn Hayes’ wife, Karen, was battling stage IV breast cancer. Karen was young and vibrant, with a house full of children. It was hard to imagine anything stopping this fiercely loving wife and mother. Reed felt compelled to help and dedicated his company golf tournament to raise funds for the Hayes family. Business colleagues and friends came out in droves to play golf for a powerful purpose that raised $20,000 for the Hayes family. Unfortunately, Karen died just a few weeks before the tournament and was not able to experience this love and support of her community.
Reed dedicated all future golf tournaments to helping moms like Karen — young mothers in the Midlands battling stage IV cancer. “Every day they’re fighting because they have babies at home, young kids at home, teenagers at home,” says Heather Mattingly, tournament coordinator. “It is so important to support them.” The money donated to each family is given to relieve some of the financial burden so moms can focus on making memories and fighting cancer.
By the time the Mattinglys learned of Scarlet Lutz Kasperbauer in 2017, they had made donations to 10 women with stage IV cancer and their families through the Rainbow Restoration Charity Golf Classic. When Scarlet was 29, she was happy with an amazing job and had met her soon to be husband in the previous year. She was also busy raising her 7-year-old son, Jody Ray. She was also ignoring symptoms that would lead to her stage IV colon cancer diagnosis.
“When you are busy with life, you can discount all the warning signs. You can excuse and explain away anything,” says Scarlet. But as the symptoms persisted for months, she had a growing feeling that something was wrong. Tests confirmed that Scarlet had a large tumor that was almost wholly obstructing her colon with metastases to the lymph nodes and liver. She underwent surgery 10 days later.
“Everything happened so quickly. I didn’t have time to think about anything,” Scarlet says. “After my surgery, I started chemotherapy.” As word spread about Scarlet’s diagnosis, support poured in. Friends threw a cornhole tournament to raise money, and a nearby church donated funds to help with Scarlet’s expenses. But the buzz around Scarlet’s battle waned as the days turned into years. “Your world has stopped turning because you have a terminal illness, but life still goes on,” says Scarlet. “And all of the bills keep coming in.” Scarlet was drowning in medical debt from surgery and multiple rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.
A Life-Changing Call
An awkward silence lingered between Scarlet and the kind man on the phone. “So, you do not have terminal cancer?” he asked, with confusion in his voice. Scarlet was nominated as a beneficiary for the Rainbow Restoration Charity Golf Classic. Nominees had to be mothers in the Midlands with stage IV cancer. Scarlet met all the criteria, or so he thought. Scarlet’s story was so compelling that the golf committee carefully selected her to be a recipient of funds raised from the golf tournament. But this phone call might send the committee back to the drawing board. “No, I don’t. You must have the wrong number.” said Scarlet.
Today, Scarlet laughs as she recalls this awkward exchange with the man from Rainbow Restoration. Scarlet was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in 2014, but she never accepted her diagnosis as terminal. “When I was told I had stage IV cancer, I asked my doctor, ‘Well, how long do I have?’” Scarlet says. “He looked at me and said, ‘I’m not God. I can’t tell you how long you have.’” So, Scarlet took his words to heart, ignored the sobering statistics, and accepted that she had as long as God would give her. So much so that when she received an unexpected phone call from Rainbow Restoration, she assumed they had the wrong number. Later, Scarlet’s husband convinced her to call the kind man back and explain the misunderstanding. That phone call would be the beginning of a life-changing journey for Scarlet.
Tournament Day
In May 2017, Scarlet smiled as she watched Jody Ray zoom by on a golf cart at Cobblestone Park Golf Club. He was 10 years old and living his best life the day of the Rainbow Restoration Charity Golf Classic. He was playing golf with the grown-ups. The whole day felt like a celebration to Scarlet. “We didn’t think about cancer that day,” she says. “It was just about living in the moment.”
Scarlet recalls that one of the most significant benefits of becoming a beneficiary was the community — a group of amazing mothers battling stage IV cancer called the Rainbow Warriors. “We built such a close bond,” she says. “I knew that I could text any one of those ladies at 2 in the morning, and they were going to be up because we all had insomnia from treatment. We all had stage IV cancer, and we were all young mothers, and we’re all trying to juggle a family, our children, living normal every day lives while trying to fight cancer. Life doesn’t stop, our kids still get sick, and we still have PTA meetings, sports. Life doesn’t stop even though in our minds it seems as though it has.”
And, of course, there was the financial assistance. “When Rainbow stepped in to help us, it was such a blessing,” says Scarlet. “It was life-changing for us because, by that time, we were drowning in medical bills because they don’t stop.” Scarlet and her husband used the Rainbow Charity Golf Classic donation to pay a deductible and then put the rest in savings for whatever the future might hold.
Desperate Measures
After multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, Scarlet’s numbers began to climb, indicating a resistance to the treatment. “Cancer is very smart,” says Scarlet. “Cancer will change its genetic makeup to work around treatments.” Due to the cancer being confined to the liver some options could be considered. In some cases where cancer is isolated to one location in the liver, a lobectomy could be performed — removing the affected lobe of the liver. However, Scarlet describes the cancer that was in her liver as “all over and within.” She was not eligible for a lobectomy. She had never been eligible for any type of liver resection or surgery since her initial diagnosis.
Scarlet and her husband used the Rainbow Restoration Charity Golf Classic savings to search for other treatment options around the country. “We went to Sloan Kettering in New York, hoping for a Hail Mary,” says Scarlet. When they met with the doctor, he told Scarlet she might be a candidate for a new experimental procedure at another hospital in Rochester. But first, they would have to stabilize the cancer that was growing before she could be considered. “He suggested that we try all of the chemotherapies that I had ever done, all at one time,” she says. “It was terrible.” Scarlet had to leave the job that she loved so much, her second family, because of the toll that treatment took on her body.
Scarlet will never forget the day she spoke to Dr. Roberto Hernandez-Alejandro at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, who would perform her experimental procedure. He described the living donor liver transplant she needed and the parameters that she had to meet, and he explained that she would have to find her donor. Due to this being so new and still in the trial period, the parameters were very stringent. Scarlet hung up the phone, looked at her husband, and said, “This man is going to save my life.”
Scarlet posted her need for a liver donor on social media, and it was shared with thousands of people overnight. The longest wait of her life began. Meanwhile, her numbers were climbing each day, threatening to exceed the threshold that would allow her to be eligible for the transplant. Six weeks later, her husband called Dr. Hernandez out of desperation. “She’s out of time,” he said.
“We think we have a donor.” Dr. Hernandez replied. These words set Scarlet’s saving in motion. City of Columbia firefighter Chastain “Chaz” Cannon volunteered to donate part of his liver in response to her social media post. Scarlet received a liver transplant on Oct. 30, 2019. She was one of the first few people in the United States to receive a living donor liver transplant with her condition and parameters. Since that day, Scarlet has had zero reoccurrence of cancer and is one of few who had this procedure done and can claim the No Evidence of Disease status.
Ripple Effects
Scarlet now serves on the golf committee for the Rainbow Restoration Charity Golf Classic and enjoys supporting her fellow Rainbow Warriors. Her picture hangs in the Rainbow Warrior hallway at Rainbow Restoration along with 30 other beneficiaries. This May marks the 13th Rainbow Restoration Charity Golf Classic. “Every year, we get more and more applications for potential beneficiaries. It’s really, really difficult on the committee to make the choice of who gets selected,” says Heather. To increase their impact, Heather hopes to increase their donations in the years to come exponentially. Since 2012, the Rainbow Restoration Charity Golf Classic has donated $557,492.88 to 31 families from the Midlands.
This year also marks Scarlet’s 10th anniversary of being diagnosed with cancer and her fifth year of being cancer-free. Additionally, Jody Ray is turning 18, and Scarlet will celebrate her 40th birthday. As Scarlet reflects on her birthday milestone, she laughs and says, “Give me all the gray hair. Give me all the wrinkles. Give it all to me because it’s such a blessing — I was so close to not seeing any of it!”
As Scarlet reflects on Rainbow Restoration’s impact on her life, she says, “The best way I can describe it is like throwing a pebble in a pond. It never stops. The ripples never stop.” Not only did the tournament provide her with the community to support her on her cancer journey, but it also helped give her resources to fight her way to victory.
To learn how to support mothers in the Midlands with stage IV cancer and donate, visit RainbowCharityGolf.com.
