Peters student celebrates nine years cancer-free with donation to hospital
Noah Meneely likes the Pittsburgh Steelers and Carolina Panthers.
His favorite baseball team is the Boston Red Sox. The Pittsburgh Pirates are his second favorite baseball team.
Math is his favorite subject, followed very closely by recess. In every single way, Noah is your normal 12-year-old who loves sports and sometimes has a hard time sitting still.
But Noah is not the typical 12-year-old. He is a cancer survivor, and his family recently celebrated his ninth year of being cancer free by donating 50 pillows – with handmade pillows cases made with minky fabric to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. It’s their way of sharing their good fortune.
“Every year, we celebrate Dec. 22, the anniversary of Noah being cancer free,” said Danielle Meneely, Noah’s mother.
When Noah was 2, Danielle and her husband, Mark, noticed bruising on their son’s legs. At first, Danielle said, they thought it might have been caused from his bicycle. But, then came a bloody nose.
Danielle thought her oldest son might be anemic. So, she made an appointment with pediatrician. Just hours before she was to take Noah in, she said she literally pulled a 12-inch blood clot. Instead of going to the doctor, Danielle took Noah to the emergency room.
“They told me it was either a virus, or leukemia,” she said.
In fact, it was acute promyelocytic leukemia, a rare form of the blood cancer. Noah was immediately put into a treatment regimen at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh initially comprised mostly of chemotherapy. And for a few months, Noah went into remission and life went back to normal for the Meneely family.
Then Noah suffered a relapse. He was just 3 at the time.
This time the treatment was more aggressive. He was given arsenic trioxide, the first time the drug was used on a child. He also underwent full body radiation and a successful stem cell transplant from an outside donor. The date was Dec. 22, 2006. He was pronounced cancer-free.
“I feel pretty good,” Noah said.
“It has been remarkable,” said Danielle. “We are beyond fortunate.”
These days, life for Noah is pretty typical for a 12-year-old. He does not take any medication, plays sports, video games, eats what he wants and plays with his two younger brothers, Daxton, who is almost 4, and Brody, 2. His only restriction involves the lifting of heavy weights, something he is not allowed to do because of the potential strain it could put on his heart, Danielle said.
Still, Noah gets asked by his classmates about his scars from the stem cell transplants – he had an unsuccessful one as well – and a tracheotomy.
“I tell them I got bit by a snake,” he said.
Added Danielle, laughing: “I’ve had some parents ask me if that was true.”
Every Dec. 22, the family celebrates its good fortune and health with a dinner with family and friends. This year, however, the Meneely family wanted to give back to Children’s Hospital.
It was Noah who gave Danielle, a seamstress, the idea for making the pillows and giving them to children at the hospital. When Noah was in treatment, she said he liked having something warm and soft to rest his head on. Family and friends donated the money for the minky fabric and pillows, which Danielle purchased from Walmart. The family donated the $345 left over from the pillow donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“I made them until I could not make anymore,” she said.
As of now, Danielle could not say if she would do another pillow project. But, she said, the family is grateful for Children’s and will be always for ways they can “pay it forward.”