Moira Minielly
For most moms, Mother’s Day rekindles wonderful memories. For Moira Minielly, Mother’s Day 2009 is particularly special. It’s the fifth anniversary of her becoming a parent. Eight years ago, in the middle of a ferocious battle with cancer, motherhood was but a distant dream.
In October 2000 Moira and her husband, Chris, were living and working in Hong Kong. While pregnant with their first child, Moira learned she had a very aggressive type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Moira is from Florida, yet she was willing to go anywhere for her cancer care. When Chris’s father, a pathologist, said Loyola was one of the very best centers for lymphoma treatment, Moira flew to Chicago the next day.
Moira quickly began six months of chemotherapy. At Loyola, cancer care is designed to treat not only a patients’ physical condition, but his/her health as well. “Day-in and day-out, the nurses treated me with dignity,” Moira said. Sadly and unfortunately, Moira was unable to maintain her pregnancy and, after a brief period of remission, the cancer returned with a vengeance. Fortunately, her Loyola physicians had developed a treatment plan that kept open the option of a bone marrow transplantation (BMT).
Patrick Stiff, MD, ABIM, Coleman Professor of Oncology Medicine, Hematology/Oncology, director, Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, guided Moira’s care once she became a BMT candidate. While Moira is complimentary and appreciative of her entire Loyola team, she is forever grateful to Dr. Stiff. “His ‘tough love’ program kept me alive on the days when I was too tired to eat much or exercise, when my mouth sores were too painful to even drink water. He pushed me to ride the exercise bike, eat 1,500 calories a day and use my aspirator. By him never giving up on me, I never gave up on myself.”
Moira underwent additional chemotherapy while the Loyola team searched the world for a suitable bone marrow donor. “I will never forget the day I found out I had a match,” Moira remembered. “I was with my sister in the chemo lab when they told me. Now I had hope.”
This new hope allowed Moira to dream again. First, of course, was her desire to live. While she may not have realized that she had but a 10 percent likelihood of survival, she knew she faced a very difficult journey. Still she set lofty goals: to run a marathon, to become a mom.
Two years after her bone marrow transplant, Moira ran the Chicago Marathon with Chris and her donor, Katherine, by her side. “I finished the race in 5 hours 40 minutes, but a whole team of people made it possible. Dr. Stiff and his team run a different kind of marathon every day.”
Due to treatment side effects, achieving her other goal – motherhood – meant adoption. On Mother’s Day 2004, they brought their daughter home from Hong Kong. Her name: Katherine, an enduring tribute to a lifesaving donor.
Six weeks later, Moira and Chris selected Father’s Day for baby Katherine’s baptism. 2009 Mother’s and Father’s Days hold special meaning for the Minielly family, as they will for many years to come.
For more information on Loyola’s BMT program and other approaches to fighting cancer, please call (888) LUHS-888 and ask for our CAN-HELP Cancer Information Service.
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM
