Judy Pearson | Contributing Writer A “TAIL” OF TWO SECOND ACTS Weaving passion into profession A 2ND ACT { survivors giving back } Much like the mountain trails she explores on her horse, Susana Della Maddalena’s second act has taken a winding route. She has a legendary love of animals and was living a good life in Los Angeles until the day every woman fears. In 1991, as a healthy 31 year old, she found a lump in her breast. “Because of my age and lack of family history, my doctor didn’t take the lump seriously,” Della Maddalena said. “Over the next six months the lump got larger, and still doctors assured me it was nothing. I pushed to get the ‘nothing’ checked more thoroughly. It was finally diagnosed as very aggressive breast cancer.” Della Maddalena had never known anyone with cancer and, needing support, came to Phoenix to live near her parents and be treated at Mayo Clinic. She had a bilateral mastectomy and grueling rounds of chemo. Just after treatment began, she came across a letter that had been written by her oncologist. “It said my outcome didn’t look good,” Della Maddalena said. “I was terrified, in the absolute depths of despair. But in Gilda Radner’s book, ‘It’s Always Something,’ she talked about a place called the Wellness Community, near my home in Santa Monica. So when I was well enough to go back to California, I decided to visit.” It took several trips around the block before she found the courage to go in. The second Della Maddalena entered, she knew it was the place for her, a place where everyone “got it” when it came to surviving cancer. Two years later, the other shoe dropped. Della 44 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | DECEMBER 2018

After battling cancer and changing careers, Susana Della Maddalena ( top and bottom left ) has devoted her life to helping animals at Altered Tails, a Valley nonprofit that provides affordable spay and neuter services to pet owners, shelters and other organizations. Maddalena’s cancer had metastasized to her vertebrae and spine. The treatment included a stem cell transplant, and a 10 percent chance of it actually keeping her cancer at bay. Miraculously, it did. She came back to Phoenix to work in banking, and it was then she became acutely aware of the importance of pouring her energy into something that made her happy. That’s when Wellness Community founder Harold Benjamin called to ask if she’d consider co-founding a location in Phoenix. At the time, there weren’t many places where survivors could get free services. One of the organization’s tenets is that services be offered in a homelike environment. With the help of some very philanthropic Phoenicians, Della Maddalena and co-founder Jane Del Vecchio (now Jane Anthony- Rivera) were able to launch the organization in a beautiful historic home on Palm Lane. The Wellness Community and Gilda’s Club (started by Radner’s husband, actor Gene Wilder, after her death) merged in 2009 to become the Cancer Support Community. And then Della Maddalena was ready to begin her second second act. She had been volunteering for Friends of Animal Control when she was hired by PetSmart to be the executive director of their charity arm. It was Della Maddalena’s innovative idea to create a donation prompt at cash registers. The small amounts donated by individual shoppers add up to impressive amounts each year. From PetSmart, Della Maddalena became the executive director of the Humane Society in Oklahoma City. And then in 2017, she returned to Phoenix to become the executive director of Altered Tails. DECEMBER 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 45