ARTICLES - 2007 RELAY

The following article appeared on the front page of The Sun Press, 60th Year, No. 15
Thursday, April 12, 2007

View this article as a downloadable PDF.

Young cancer survivor leads JCU's Relay For Life
English major, 21, is 'repaying a debt'
by Marie Catanese
Staff Writer

After the doctors left the room, Maureen Carroll's father took a deep breath and looked at her.

"I wish I could take your place," he said. "I wish you didn't have to go through this."

Just three weeks after her 10th birthday, Maureen and her family discovered the sharp pains in her joints that kept her up at night were not the growing pains they seemed to be.

She had leukemia.

What she felt deep inside her knees and ankles was her bone marrow filling up with abnormal white blood cells.

"I didn't understand until the doctors introduced me to another little girl with the same kind of leukemia," Maureen said. "I remember thinking, 'Why doesn't she have any hair?' and 'Why does she look so sick?'"

Upon returning to her own hospital room, she remembers staring into the mirror at her own shiny, dark locks, trying to imagine herself without them.

Then everything changed.

Now a 21-year-old senior English major at John Carroll University, she often thinks about her two-and-a-half year battle with cancer.

She jumped at the chance to serve as survivorship chair for JCU's first-ever American Cancer Society Relay For Life. The event, which will take place on campus April 21 and 22, is a hybrid celebration and memorial ceremony to raise money for cancer research. It continues overnight and into the following day to symbolize the fact that cancer never sleeps.

Aside from the cause, Maureen said she got involved to repay what she considers a debt to the ACS. It was a drug developed with grant money from the society that saved her young life 10 years ago. "There is a lot of hope now for those with cancer," she said. "The Relay is going to be a wonderful, moving and energizing night. We have so much planned, no one will have trouble staying awake."

During her treatment, Maureen said people she had never met sent her cards and made meals for her parents and two young sisters, who were often "left to their own devices" while mom was at the hospital and dad was at work. Luckily her family lived less than one mile away from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, in Buffalo, NY, and she was rarely alone.

The first two months of her treatment were the most difficult. A victim of infection after infection, she was confined to the intensive care unit, where she lost 30 pounds and could not see her younger sister.

"I literally was skin and bones," she said. "I wasn't well enough to move and no one thought I'd ever leave the hospital."

Her parents sought support from other parents of sick and recovering children. Today they offer themselves as mentors for others.

"At 10 years old, you can't really get your head around the whole concept of cancer," she said. "But I was old enough to have very vivid memories." It was later, sometime in the ninth grade, that Maureen was struck by the intensity of what she had been through and began to identify herself as a survivor.

A young girl she was working with lost her battle with cancer and died. "I realized there really is no justice in it," she said.

She and others touched by cancer will share their stories as part of the Relay For Life luminaria ceremony, held at dusk on Saturday of Relay weekend. "This event gives survivors an opportunity to connect and bond over what we've all gone through," she said. "Everyone has a different story but there are also things that are common to everyone touched by cancer."

For more information on JCU's Relay For Life visit www.jcu.edu/relay.