‘Megan’s future is looking brighter every day’

THE prayers of Megan Malone’s family have been answered with the parents of the little girl, who left Ireland to receive life-saving treatment in the US, revealing that doctors have told them there is now no evidence of cancer in their daughter’s brain.
“The main tumour is gone. We are in shock and just can’t believe it,” said parents John and Sheila. “Megan’s future is looking brighter and brighter every day.”
Doctors in New York’s Presbyterian Hospital have also examined the three and a half-year-old’s spine, with strong indications that there is little or no tumour remaining.
The little girl from Cork was diagnosed last year with a highly malignant brain tumour, as well as multiple smaller tumours in her brain and spine. She is from a well-known Clare family, being the granddaughter of Michael John and Kay Malone from Ballyalla.
The Malone family left Ireland for New York in early December, just months after Megan was diagnosed with PNET medullablastoma. Doctors in Ireland gave her little chance of survival. However, doctors in New York were hopeful that their Head Start treatment would help her.
Megan’s parents were given the results of the latest MRI last Friday with John saying, “We could not have asked for better news. The MRI scans were reviewed by the medical team and the results are amazing.”
Doctors have told John and Sheila that there is complete response in Megan’s brain and the main tumour is gone. “This is a unique situation. Most brain tumours of this nature and magnitude are surgically removed first before chemo and many still require radiotherapy to completely remove. Megan never had any part of her main tumour surgically removed and yet chemo alone removed it. Dr Garvan was delighted with this result and explained that he can remember such a result in the past but they are few and far between. Her response is extraordinary,” they said.
Megan’s spinal scans were examined in great detail by the doctors. “They were both amazed at what they saw. In a nutshell, they cannot be 100% sure right now but there are very strong indications that there is little or no tumour remaining in Megan’s spine. This result has completely blown our minds. It is more than we could have ever hoped for at this stage of treatment,” her parents explained.
Megan’s next MRI scan will be in about eight weeks.