A Southmoreland High School graduate who is battling cancer has joined in the fight against the disease and now wants to inspire a younger generation of students to make a difference in the lives of others.

Corey Rhodes of East Huntingdon, through his Rhodes Cancer Foundation, has established a $2,500 scholarship that will be awarded to a member of the Southmoreland Class of 2026. Applicants are required to identify a need in their community and take action to help meet it through a service project.

The project is meant to be relevant to the applicant’s own experiences or interests.

Rhodes, who is a 2011 Southmoreland alumnus, readily agreed when the scholarship was suggested by his cousin, Aleece Brown of Scottdale, who graduated from the same school in 2009 and is an officer in the foundation.

“We both put our ideas on paper and merged them together,” Brown said of the scholarship guidelines. While any Southmoreland senior may apply, she said, “the preference is going to go to somebody who is going to enter the medical field.”

In another requirement, the Rhodes scholarship applicant has to submit an essay detailing how cancer has affected them or those around them.

Unfortunately, that experience isn’t an uncommon one. In the United States, an estimated 40 out of 100 men and 39 out of 100 women will develop cancer sometime during their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society’s 2025 “Cancer Facts and Figures.”

“It seems like a lot of younger people have cancer now,” Rhodes said.

He’s doing his part to help change that trend with the funds raised by the foundation. In October, the foundation donated $14,125 to the University of Pittsburgh for liver cancer research.

“It gives me a sense of hope to continue to try to help others,” Rhodes said. “Maybe they won’t get sick the way I have.”

Four years into his battle with fibrolamellar carcinoma — a rare type of liver cancer that is known to affect younger people — Rhodes has undergone surgery, a clinical trial, immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

He continues to work part time as an accountant while reporting for treatments every two weeks at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Unity.

The cancer previously spread to his bones and now has appeared on an adrenal gland.

“It’s a new mass that was found,” he said. Since then, he added, “it hasn’t really grown a whole lot.”

All too aware of the energy-draining nature of hourslong chemotherapy sessions, Rhodes uses some of his foundation’s funds to provide a free lunch once a week for fellow patients at the Unity Hillman center.

So far, he said, the foundation has paid for more than 500 lunches for cancer patients and more than 30 for Hillman staff. Booking area food trucks, he’s offered the lunch program a few times at another Hillman location, in Uniontown.

“We try to give some comfort when you’re getting treatment for four to six hours,” he said.

The volunteer efforts of family and friends at fundraising events have been essential to the success of Rhodes’ foundation, along with support from the community and local businesses.

According to Rhodes, the foundation surpassed its $10,000 fundraising goal with its second annual golf outing July 19 at Glengarry Golf Links in Unity — as was the case with the previous year’s inaugural event.

“It’s our No. 1 fundraiser,” he said. “We matched all our sponsorships, which was great.

“It’s wild how many straight donations we get.”

Students at his alma mater have pitched in as well.

Principal Charity Colebank said the Southmoreland High School Interact Club, which has a goal of spreading kindness, has made donations to support Rhodes’ lunch program.

“They had 100 pounds of pasta they donated last school year,” she said.

Brown said those noodles were put to good use in preparing for the foundation’s spaghetti dinner fundraiser in February.

“It’s been instrumental in getting the word out about the foundation,” Brown said. “A lot of those students did a bake sale earlier this year.”

The foundation’s next fundraising event is an all-Chevy car show, beginning at 9 a.m. Aug. 23 at Jim Shorkey Murrysville Chevrolet. More information can be found on the Rhodes Cancer Foundation Facebook page.

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