Donna O'Neill was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 50 and battled the disease with humor and positivity, shaving her head into a mohawk to deal with hair loss from chemotherapy and visualizing Pac-Man eating her tumor during treatments; five years after being declared cancer-free following a double mastectomy, she got her first tattoo commemorating her survival and newfound appreciation for living life to the fullest without fear. O'Neill's ability to find laughter even in her darkest days of cancer treatment helped her and others cope with the emotional and physical toll of battling the disease.

1. Michelle Goodman, michelle.goodman@iowastatedaily.com
ClusterFlunk, a new website for university students, may have possible
academic integrity issues.
The website was created by two University of Iowa students, Adam Nelson
and Joe Dallago.
"ClusterFlunk is a website that allows you to connect with other students that
are specifically in your classes,” Nelson said. “It’s like a Facebook group for
your class at the university. You can instant message, upload and download
files.”
ClusterFlunk was created off the idea that classmates weren’t connecting with
one another and study resources between students were not available.
“We were baffled at the idea that there can be 400 students in a lecture and
you don’t know a single one,” Nelson said. “Who knows if one of those people
are your future wife or your future business partner?”
Although ClusterFlunk is intended to be used as an academic resource, ISU
students are urged to be mindful about what they share on the website, as
well as anywhere online, about their classes. ISU officials have been informed
about many note-sharing websites in the past and would like students to keep
the university’s academic dishonesty policy in mind when on these websites.
“First and foremost, a student should consult his or her syllabus and consult
with the faculty member or instructor for a given course,” said Michelle
Boettcher, assistant dean of students and director of judicial affairs. “This is
the best way to proactively avoid any allegation of misconduct.”
ClusterFlunk had its beginning two years ago at the University of Iowa. The
website had a trial period during 2013 to determine if the website would be
successful.
After receiving feedback from 10,000 students at the University of Iowa,
Nelson said they expect to have more than 100,000 users by the end of the
semester and spikes during midterms and finals as they spread the website to
universities all over the nation.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling when you have students tweeting at you that you
just saved their life,” Nelson said. “You can see that students are meeting with

2. their classmates.”
ClusterFlunk differs from other educational sharing websites because
everything is completely free to users. Nelson believes that students shouldn’t
have to pay to meet other students in the class or share study materials. The
website is free to join and it always will be, Nelson said.
One feature of ClusterFlunk is the ability to post either anonymously or not.
This allows students who are nervous to ask questions in class the ability to
ask them online.
ClusterFlunk was created to be as user friendly as possible, too. All of the
courses are already on the website. All students have to do is join them.
“We really pride ourselves on user experience,” Nelson said. “We make it as
stupid-easy as possible to connect with students in your class.”
Some faculty members are looking at how students will actually use the
website.
“What the creators of ClusterFlunk have done is fill a gap left by Facebook,”
said Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and
Communication.
Bugeja also said Facebook used to only include university students, and
students used to use Facebook to talk about projects or plan to meet
somewhere.
"When Facebook decided to open up registration to anyone and go national, it
was a very good move financially for them, but what Facebook lost was that
locality concerning the ability to contact people about everything from
homework to meeting at a certain place,” Bugeja said.
Boettcher also offered some considerations and reminders to students about
how to avoid committing academic dishonesty.
“Students cannot and should not post notes, slides or other materials created
or shared by the faculty member or instructor,” Boettcher said. “This includes
material the instructor makes available for the entire class. Students should
not share material that has not been generated on their own.”
Aside from possible academic integrity issues, the current usage of

3. ClusterFlunk has some faculty members concerned that the website will be
not completely be used for its intended purpose.
“I do see the customary way that students use social media websites like
Facebook being a much larger concern because they have been pre-
programmed by Facebook to respond in certain manners, no matter what
digital application they are using,” Bugeja said. “There are messages on
ClusterFlunk about subleasing apartments, there are only a couple posts
about homework and there are many posts about the wild party at the
University of Iowa [for registering at least 5,000 ClusterFlunk users from that
university].”
Iowa State has more than 500 members on ClusterFlunk as of Feb. 18.

4. Has potential to be published by American Cancer Society, health magazines,
and magazines for cancer patients- Profile Assignment
She sits patiently as the tattoo artist carefully fills in each line. She is 55 years old
and this is her first tattoo. A tattoo was never something Donna O’neill planned on
getting. Neither was cancer. O’neill was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was
50 years old. A single mother of three girls, she works full time at Creighton
University Medical Center. After being diagnosed with cancer, O’neill had two
choices. “I could let the cancer take over my life,” she said. “Or I could finally start
living.”
Hearing the words, “you have cancer,” is a nightmare for most people. When O’neill
heard those three words, her life was shattered. “I couldn’t comprehend anything
the doctor was saying. I was scared and the only thing on my mind was my kids,”
O’neill said. During her battle of cancer, she found an inner strength that she didn’t
know was there before her life was flipped upside down. “The only way I survived
was through humor. Once I decided, I can beat this; I saw my life in a different light,”
she said.
Two weeks after being diagnosed, O’neill started playing Pac man, but not the
normal type of Pac man. Every time she went to chemotherapy, she visualized Pac
man eating her tumor. “The chemo would drip, drip, drip, in the bag and find it’s way
to my body,” she said. “Then one day the dripping noise turned into Pac man, finding
his way to my tumor and eating it.” The game of Pac man not only allowed chemo to
go by faster, it also reminded her that each session of chemo was one step closer to
being cancer free.

5. Chemotherapy can take a toll on your body unlike any other. Not only is the
medicine strong enough to force you to lose all of your hair, it makes you weak.
Emotionally, O’neill was drained. “It was hard to smile. It was. But I smiled anyways.
The cancer was controlling my body and the chemo was breaking me down. But
smiling was something neither of those could take away from me.”
One morning, O’neill woke up and found something on her pillow. “It was my hair,”
she said. “All of my hair was falling out, so I only had one choice. Call the hairdresser
and get a Mohawk.” O’neill, along with her three daughters, went to the hair salon
that night and laughed as she shaved her head, leaving only a middle section of hair
to spike up into a Mohawk. “It was one of the funniest things,” O’neill’s daughter,
Stephanie said. “My mom has had the same hair since I was born. And now suddenly
she had a Mohawk.” O’neill went to work with the Mohawk the next day, and
everyone laughed, admiring her strength to find humor in her darkest days. Kelly
Hampton has been working with O’neill for 30 years. They started working in the
same hospital when they graduated college and have been best friends and co-
workers ever since. “She walked in with the biggest smile on her face, she looked
like she had won the lottery,” Hampton said. “But really she was fighting cancer. She
pulled her hat off and her face lit up even more. She had a Mohawk!” Laughter filled
the hospital unit that day and O’neill even made a trip up to oncology to show other
patients her new hairstyle. “Seeing my co-workers laugh and other cancer patients
laugh helped me laugh,” O’neill explained. “For the first time since my diagnosis, I
saw my youngest daughter smile when I got my Mohawk.”

6. Although the Mohawk only lasted a few days before the hair started falling out, it
gave O’neill and everyone around her a reason to smile. As chemo continued, O’neill
kept visualizing Pac man eating her tumor. Months went by and then it was time for
surgery. O’neill had a double mastectomy and then she was declared cancer free. “I
am a better person because of the cancer,” O’neill said. “It has made me stronger. It
has made me appreciate the bad days just as much as the good ones.”
Since beating cancer, O’neill has found a greater appreciation for the little things in
life and has started doing things she never would have done before her diagnosis.
When her hair started growing back, she colored it bright red. Not only was she
more spontaneous, she also became less fearful and started living each day like it
was her last. “I’m 55 years old and I’ve finally let the fear go that was holding me
down for all these years,” O’neill said. “I rode a motorcycle for the first time in my
life after having cancer, and now I go to the race track every weekend.” Riding a
motorcycle is not only thrilling for O’neill, but it makes her feel alive. O’neill got her
first tattoo on her five year anniversary of being cancer free. From the outside, it
looks like the national symbol of breast cancer, a symbol of hope, faith, and love. But
from the inside, it means so much more. “Cancer gave me a chance to live, to do
things I was afraid of. Cancer gave me strength, but more importantly, it gave me
life.”