Local girl and family beat cancer with more than a little help from their friends
Published on October 11th, 2000
STONEHAM, MA - It's been a little over two years since the Gallagher family of Woburn had its world turned upside down.
Meaghan Gallagher was getting ready to enter second grade in the summer of 1998 when her family noticed that something was not quite right. A visit to Meaghan's doctor and a subsequent trip to Children's Hospital in Boston set in motion events that the family could never have imagined. Meaghan, they discovered, was very sick.
The diagnosis of acute lymphocytic leukemia came as a shock to Meaghan's parents Elizabeth (Cappozi) and Kevin, both of whom hail from Stoneham and are graduates of Stoneham High School. While Meaghan displayed some fatigue and complained of headaches, which prompted the initial visit to her pediatrician, the Gallaghers were unprepared for such devastating news.
But the human spirit is a wondrous thing, and while the past two years have been difficult, Meaghan, with her family by her side, has found the strength to beat the illness.
"Meaghan's doing fantastic," Meaghan's aunt Evelyn Rooney said of her niece's health and positive attitude. "She never ceases to amaze us."
On Saturday night, the family celebrated Meaghan's triumph over the disease that could not keep her down. A "remission party" brought together family, friends, neighbors, classmates, teachers and even Meaghan's Clapp Elementary School principal, at the Elks Hall in Stoneham to celebrate the precious gift of life.
Meaghan's illness is in remission. That means that the intensive course of treatment she embarked on two years ago, which included both chemotherapy and radiation, is over and all signs of the disease are gone. Meaghan, now a fourth-grader, completed her treatments on October 3.
Through it all, Rooney said, support from family and friends has been overwhelming.
The Gallaghers are a close-knit family and all four Gallagher children were used to spending time, even sleepovers, with their grandparents, aunts and uncles. So when Meaghan's illness forced more of those visits for her siblings, the children adjusted well.
Meaghan's older sister Jacqueline, with whom she is particularly close, supported her sister with a maturity beyond her years. In addition to helping Meaghan keep current with school work, through constant contact with teachers, Jacqueline cut her own hair short when Meaghan's was being ravaged by the effects of chemotherapy.
In November of 1998, a fundraiser was held at the Marconi Club to ease some of the burden from Meaghan's parents. Elizabeth and Kevin had both taken leaves of absences from their jobs; one would stay with Meaghan during her treatments and the other would tend to Meaghan's three siblings.
"People came out of the woodwork," Rooney said of the successful event.
In February of 1999, Lisa Lemay, an acquaintance of the family whose children attend school with the Gallagher children, organized a second fund raiser that was even bigger than the first.
The family, Rooney said, was overwhelmed with gratitude and thanks.
On Saturday night, Meaghan's parents expressed that gratitude to the hundred or so well wishers in attendance for the unrelenting support shown to them over the past two years. They thanked family members for being there for Meaghan's siblings during Meaghan's treatment appointments as well as for those unplanned trips to the hospital at varying times of the day or night.
And finally, they thanked their children for showing their sister such great love and support, and for being understanding when both parents could not always be there with them.
"There was not a dry eye in the house," said Rooney, calling the evening "wonderful."
What otherwise might have been considered a glitch in the evening - when the electricity went out for about a half hour - did not get in the way of the party. There is not much that this family can't handle, especially since they've learned what is really important in life.
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