{"id":10570,"date":"2017-03-08T00:56:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T05:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=10570"},"modified":"2017-03-08T00:56:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T05:56:58","slug":"brick-councilwoman-asks-for-prayers-in-cancer-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2017\/03\/brick-councilwoman-asks-for-prayers-in-cancer-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Councilwoman Asks for Prayers in Cancer Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marianna<\/a>

Marianna Pontoriero (left) announced she was battling cancer in March 2017. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

A Brick Township councilwoman asked for prayers as she battles a \u201crare and aggressive\u201d form of cancer \u2013 but she asked those prayers be directed toward her children and family rather than herself.<\/p>\n

The tone of the request was typical of Councilwoman Marianna Pontoriero\u00a0\u2013\u00a0a frequent advocate for abused children and the community\u2019s senior citizens \u2013 to put others before herself.<\/p>\n

Pontoriero, 43, at the end of a council meeting Tuesday night, announced she was battling head and neck cancer, which has already spread since her initial diagnosis. She will undergo surgery March 20 that will target tumors.<\/p>\n

\u201cCancer has declared war on me, so I\u2019m ready to declare war back on it,\u201d said Pontoriero, who works as an attorney at the law office she founded in Brick<\/a> with her sister. \u201cLike most Americans who are plagued with this disease, I will be working while I\u2019m being treated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pontoriero said she would be cutting back her hours at work, but would remain doing all she could in her role as township councilwoman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank my colleagues, the other council people, who are picking up my slack,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need anyone to feel pity for me,\u201d she continued. \u201cPeople who fight this disease come in all shapes, colors and come from different professions. I\u2019m a very transparent person in general, and I don\u2019t believe there is anything I can\u2019t tackle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, prayer can\u2019t hurt, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have three wonderful kids, so if you want to say any prayers, I ask that you devote them to my family and my children,\u201d Pontoriero said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a strong woman and we know you\u2019re going to do a great job fighting it, and we need you here,\u201d said her council colleague, Paul Mummolo.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll be fine, Marianna,\u201d said Councilman Jim Fozman. \u201cWe\u2019ll help you and support you any way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pontoriero said she will speak publicly about her fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot worse for my family than, I think, it is for me,\u201d Pontoriero said. \u201cIf anything can come as a positive for me, I think I can make a lot of connections with our residents and find out what they\u2019re going through, versus being an outsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll see everyone after my surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A Brick Township councilwoman asked for prayers as she battles a “rare and aggressive” form of cancer \u2013 but she asked those prayers be directed toward her children and family rather than herself…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,1828,2795,2794],"class_list":["post-10570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-brick","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-cancer","tag-head-and-neck-cancer","tag-marianna-pontoriero"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/brick_council.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-2Ku","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}