Morgan Plott, Benchmark’s Fundraising Coordinator, took the time to write up his story of childhood cancer, and recently losing his mother to cancer below:
My mom always called me her “miracle baby” but when I was younger I did not really understand why she called me that. After being cancer free for 40 years, I now understand.
Six weeks after I was born on February 3, 1981 I was diagnosed with at the time was considered the deadliest form of pediatric cancer (neuroblastoma). To this day neuroblastoma is still considered one of the most deadliest forms of pediatric cancer.
A few days after I was born my mom knew something was wrong and knew I was very sick. Because I was only six weeks old, I do not remember any of this and I thank God for that. My mom said I would not eat and when I did try to take my bottle I would cry and spit everything right back up. My mom took me to the doctor at least two to three times a week saying there is something wrong with my baby. The doctors kept saying he will be ok, it just an upset stomach and that he will be good in a few days. After a few days my mom took me back to the doctor and said he is not getting any better and he keeps doing the same thing when taking his bottle. The doctor finally did some tests and took x-rays. The doctor noticed that I had a heart murmur which basically saved my life because that’s when I was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. The doctors said if they had waited just a few days later to find the cancer that it would have spread and I would have died within those few days because of how small I was at the time. My dad even purchased my burial plot because he thought I would not survived….thanks a lot dad! The doctors basically cut me open from one end of my stomach to the other and removed the cancer cells. Since I was so small they just put scotch tape on me so the area where they cut me to do the surgery would heal back up.
Unfortunately my mom passed away from cancer last month. I am very thankful for her being there for me every step of the way and for not giving up on me when others did especially the doctors. I am alive today because of the good Lord and my mother’s instinct of knowing that something was not right from the start.
I am cancer free today (I am 40 years old now). I do a life term follow up with St. Jude’s Children Hospital so they can use the information that I provide for future research to help other kids survive this awful disease we call cancer.
It is very important for people to support cancer research so that they can find a cure for all types of cancer.