Founder of brain-tumor resource organization dies

In May 2003, when Marguerite Frauenpreis Sciuk didn't meet her husband, Kevin, for a dinner date and didn't answer her phone, he went looking for her.

He found her unconscious on the floor at their Manakin home in the throes of a seizure.

Taken to the hospital, she underwent emergency surgery that removed one-third of a brain tumor the size of a potato.

After a week, she regained consciousness to find that her right side was paralyzed, she had problems saying what she wanted to say, and her higher-math skills and some short-term memory were gone.

Doctors told her they could not remove the rest of the tumor, which eventually would grow larger, and that she had four to seven years to live.

Before she died at home on Tuesday, she founded and served as president of the Brain Tumor Resource and Information Network, or B.R.A.I.N., a Richmond-based volunteer organization devoted to improving the quality of life for brain-tumor survivors, increasing public awareness and raising funds for research to find a cure.

"She threw herself totally into helping others and raising money to help researchers find a cure, never thinking it would help her," her husband said. "She knew it wouldn't help her. For her, it was just a matter of time."

She sought out the best treatment in the country, and, from the onset, she also sought out other brain-tumor patients, who became like family.

"She took them to radiation treatments, sat at their bedsides and did whatever they needed," her husband said.

The 55-year-old Teaneck, N.J., native grew up in rural Boonton Township, N.J.

Originally dreaming of oceanography, she wound up earning a master's degree in business administration at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Mrs. Sciuk came to Richmond in 1989 as payroll manager for Circuit City. When she left in 1999, she oversaw 350 employees as a director of the bank the company started to handle credit cards.

She had taken time off to help her mother after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was preparing to re-enter the work force when she suffered her seizure.

In addition to her husband, survivors include her parents, Carl and Marguerite Frauenpreis of Boonton Township, N.J.; and two brothers, Carl Frauenpreis of Wallingford, Conn., and Scott Frauenpreis of Newton, N.J.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be said today, Monday, at 10 a.m. at St. Benedict Catholic Church, 300 N. Shepherd St. Burial will be in Hollywood Cemetery.

Contact Ellen Robertson at (804) 649-6115 or .