Santa comes for brave Megan Malone

CHRISTMAS in New York may seem like a dream come true for many. However for the family of Megan Malone, who spent much of last year in the States battling to save their daughter’s life, there was certainly no place like home this past festive season.
The family spent Christmas 2010 at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital where Megan was receiving treatment after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Aged just three and a half, Megan was diagnosed with sPNET medullablastoma, a highly malignant brain tumour as well as multiple smaller tumours in her brain and spine.
Megan’s entire family, including dad John Malone from Ballyalla, mother Sheila, brothers Tristan and Dylan and sister Chloe moved to New York after a massive fundraising campaign was launched both in Clare and the family’s home in Cork.
But having astounded doctors with her response to the pioneering treatment in the US, Megan and her family returned to Ireland last year, allowing them to have their dream Christmas at home.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, John said that because Megan had been such a good girl all year, Santa gave her a toy kitchen and some dolls.
“This Christmas was just great, we stayed at home and had the turkey and ham and Santa came, it was just brilliant to have Megan at home and for her to be so healthy. This Christmas is very different to last Christmas for us and we have to pinch ourselves at times to actually believe that we all came through our ordeal, especially Megan.
“It’s like chalk and cheese when you think of what we were doing this time last year, Megan was very sick then, but it’s great now to be at this end of it and hopefully, touch wood, things will continue that way,” he said.
He added that Megan has been doing very well since returning to Ireland and her hair is slowly growing back. However the life saving treatment she underwent has left its mark.
“She is very good, when you think about what she had to put up with in terms of the treatment, let alone the disease, it was fairly horrific. There was a lot of, kind of, psychological damage done as well in terms of things like trying to get her to eat again. It seems very basic, but for a child of that age it’s hard to get them to do all of that again for themselves. At the moment there is a bit of feeding with syringes and special food just to keep up her strength and keep her progressing, but with time that will resolve itself.
“Other than that she is perfect, and she is always running around. She got a neurological examination a month ago and the only thing they could find wrong with her was the reflexes in her ankle and Achilles heel. That is a direct result of one of the chemo drugs. It won’t ever come back, but with physio and other measures you can supple up the joints. She might not be running any marathons, or be in the Olympics, but once she is alive that’s the important thing.”
The family are so confident about Megan’s recovery, that they are now thinking of eventually sending her to school.
“When we brought her home we felt that she was still a bit weak for school, her vaccines were all nullified by the treatment so she couldn’t go to a school where there would be other kids not up to date with their vaccines. We’ve got home tuition for her, where she is taught the basics and that’s going very well. But we’re hoping that this time next year she will be able to get her MMR and then start school in September, all going well.”
They are also set to make a journey to their family in Clare over the new year, their first visit since Megan returned to Ireland. “We haven’t gone that direction since we came home because we just felt that she needed to relax, it’s a long journey for her. It was hard enough getting her back from America, it really knocked sparks out of her and it took a while for her to recover from that, so we said we’d take it easy. But in the new year we will try to get to Clare.”
Megan’s next MRI scan will be on January 27 and John is optimistic that the results will continue to be good. Once again, he praised all of those who supported the family, including the generous people of his home county of Clare.
“It’s incredible the support we got. We wouldn’t have dreamt about even tackling America without the level of support we got. It just wouldn’t have been financially possible for one, or logistically possible, without all of the help that we got from Clare people, Cork people and the Irish Americans over there. Everyone chipped in and helped us out. It was a real team effort, it wasn’t just us deciding to go there. It’s hard to even put in to words how grateful we are with all of the support we got but I’m sure people know that they have played their part and we are so grateful for that.”