Mission Moment - Message from Fiona Purcell

A personal message from Amanda Goble:

Fiona Purcell is the wife of one of our honored heroes from a season past. Her husband Frank is a Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor but unfortunately their battle extended beyond just Frank. The following story is written by Fiona and lets you guys know what their family has been through:

Frank and I met in high school on a Wednesday afternoon in the school cafeteria. I was 16 and he was 17 and we haven't looked back since. We were great friends throughout high school and college and visited each other frequently but even though we had great feelings for each other, we didn't act on them until I moved to Philadelphia in 1996. We dated for years and then we got engaged and married in 2001. We got married in the chapel of our old high school in Massachusetts on December 29th. We tried for a year to get pregnant and I was able to tell Frank that we would have a baby the day after Valentine's Day 2003. Frank was the cutest expectant father. He was so excited and came to 99% of my prenatal appointments. I used to wake up in the middle of the night with Frank whispering to my stomach. He endured endless freezing nights during that summer as I blasted us with the coldest setting on our AC because I was quite possibly the hottest pregnant woman on earth that summer.

At some point in July or August of 2003, Frank told me he had a bump on his neck and that he was going to get his general practitioner to check it out. I remember the conversation and remember dismissing it outright because I was so involved with the pregnancy. Then, two weeks before Liam was due he came home from work and ordered my favorite pizza, asked me how I was feeling and proceeded to let me babble on about my day for 2 hours before he told me what the lump on his neck meant. I remember he told me about it and kept talking for about five full minutes without actually saying the word cancer. I couldn't believe what he was saying. I made him drive over to his parents house so we could tell them and then we went home and I held him in my arms the whole night thinking that our lives would never be the same.

The next few weeks were spent shopping for an oncologist, getting biopsies done and storing sperm at a fertility clinic bank for the hope of having future children post-chemo. Frank refused to start chemo until after the baby was born so that he could be there for the delivery and keep his full attention on the baby. During this time, the lump on his neck grew bigger and bigger. Finally, 10 days after my due date my water broke and we went to the hospital.

We really thought that our lives could not get any worse than the diagnosis that Frank had gotten, but then Liam was born and immediately coded. He had transposition of the greater arteries and would need open heart surgery straight away. Frank rushed from Lankenau Hospital to CHOP with Liam in the ambulance and had the presence of mind to handle Liam's tenuous first day of life with a strength I haven't seen in any other person. On Liam's second day of life the three of us in our tiny family were all in separate hospitals. I was in Lankenau recovering from the emergency C-section, Liam was stabilized at CHOP and Frank's oncologist had insisted that he begin chemo at HUP as the lump on his neck was now the size of a softball and made it nearly impossible to turn his head. Frank went from chemo back across the street to be with Liam. He did this throughout Liam's short life.

Frank was amazing throughout this entire period of time. Frank underwent chemo, tended to a terminally ill child and continued to work full-time. After we lost Liam, Frank continued to get treated and work. He would be so tired at night that he would come home, eat and go right to bed, the whole while worrying about me and how I was coping. He finished chemo in April of 2004 and has been in remission since. We now have Dermot and he is our post-chemo IVF miracle.

I can't believe how lucky I am to have found this man and be able to say he is my husband and the father of my children. He is intelligent, kind, generous to a fault and full of such a remarkable spirit.

Thanks for hearing my hero story.

Frank and Fiona both extended their gratitude to all of you for what you are doing. They both completed the Alaska Marathon in June of 2006 through TNT and thanks to the Alaskian air they just had their third child this past March without the help of technology.