FREEPORT

Lisa Waterman Gonneville was as tough as they come during her field hockey playing days at Freeport High School in the late 1980s.

But Gonneville is facing a much sterner test. For more than three years, mesothelioma has had her battling for her life. Surgery and chemotherapy treatments have kept Gonneville going. Now, so are some of her old high school teammates.

At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, a group of Freeport High alumni will take on the current field hockey varsity team in a benefit game at the high school. The event will call attention to Gonneville and to her condition, caused by exposure to asbestos.

“Some of these are classmates I haven’t seen in years,” Gonneville said. “It’s touching.”

Jen Meserve Johnson organized and inspired Tuesday’s game, which will be followed by another game on Aug. 29 at the school, and an event at Buck’s Naked Barbecue in town. Carolyn Arndt Sweet designed a T-shirt with the words “Go, fight, win” and with Gonneville’s No. 14 on it. Kristen Peterson and Becky Curtis Daniel are among the other teammates of Gonneville who are stepping to the plate.

“Lisa wants to get the word out about this disease and asbestos,” Peterson said. “We’re very motivated. Such a young person with such a nice family. Everybody’s really anxious to help.”

Gonneville and her husband, Tom, who live in Dayton, have four children — three still living at home. They’re all in this together.

“It is not a curable condition,” Gonneville said. “I’ve had numerous surgeries and chemo. Most people die within a year. Your best hope is surgery, to get the most tumors out as possible.”

Gonneville, an advocate of a total ban of asbestos, undergoes her surgeries at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Despite eight surgeries, more than 40 rounds of chemo and a colon resection, her tumors are growing again, spreading to her lungs and liver. And another operation is planned.

Meanwhile, Gonneville deals with nausea and weakness.

“I do what I have to do,” she said. “I have three young children at home.”

Mesothelioma causes malignant cancer cells to form within the lining of the chest, abdomen, or around the heart.

In Gonneville’s case, the problem began in her abdomen. She was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome in 2008. But her abdominal pain and diarrhea persisted. A year later, following an ultrasound, cancerfilled fluid was found. Mesothelioma was confirmed in March 2009.

“When they told me,” Gonneville said, “I couldn’t get much sleep for months.”

Gonneville discovered a mesothelioma specialist in Pittsburgh, and underwent a 12-hour surgery on April 6.

“It pretty much left me with organs that I absolutely needed,” she said. “Everything in there was diseased.”

The disease is believed to be caused from exposure to asbestos. It so happens that Gonneville lived in a home that contained asbestos when she was young.

She and her husband have traveled several times to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness of the danger of this substance.

“I’ve been trying to get the word out about mesothelioma and asbestos,” she said. “Asbestos is still legal in the United States. That’s what I want to get out there. Knowledge is power.”

lgrard@timesrecord.com

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