Women being honored for their profiles in courage

Their friendship didn't get off to the easiest start.

Phyllis Markoff was waiting in her oncologist's office for chemotherapy treatment when she noticed the scarf on the woman across from her, a woman also in her mid-30s named Emily Scattergood. Markoff asked where she bought it.

"She just said, 'My sister got it for me.' I was wearing my wig and she didn't think I was a cancer patient so she was really put off," said Markoff, of Cherry Hill. "I was like, 'I'm going to the beach, and I don't want to go bald.' "

In the ensuing months, the two women became fast friends, bonding over the shared experience of being treated for breast cancer at a relatively young age while trying to manage young families.

Three years later, both have seen their cancers go into remission, and today they will be honored by the nonprofit group Living Beyond Breast Cancer at its annual fund-raising gala in downtown Philadelphia.

Markoff and Scattergood, of Haddonfield, will be recognized, along with Aundreia Alexander of King of Prussia and Wendy Rutter Jonas of Fort Washington, for their battles against breast cancer.

"We give it to women who have really compelling stories that will inspire other women," said Jean Sachs, the group's CEO. "For women in their 30s, even though there's so much media about breast cancer, you're really alone. It's still pretty rare when you're under 40."

Markoff, 40, a teacher at the Philadelphia Academy charter school, was seven months' pregnant with her second child when she was informed she had cancer in 2006.

Scattergood, 37, a radiologist at Cooper University, had just completed a radiology fellowship and was dealing with two young daughters, one 15 months old, when she received her news that same year.

With their cancers in remission, Markoff and Scattergood are working and spending time with their families. Sachs said she believed stories like theirs provide comfort to other young women battling breast cancer.

"I used to live for the next goal, the house, the car. But everything goes to the side. You become very focused on surviving," Scattergood said. "Phyllis and I would have become friends no matter what. Cancer only made us friends sooner."