Beating ALL
Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter
The Relay for Life had 68 cancer survivors take part in the celebration ceremony. In those 68 was eight-year-old Morgan Chisan. Morgan was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ALL, which is a type of blood cancer.
“Basically it takes all your good cells and replaces them with bad ones,” said Tammi Chisan, Morgan’s mother. ALL is most common in childhood, with a peak incidence between two to five years of age and another peak later in life.
“I got a cold and then Morgan got a cold and then the bruises came and she was really pale, and that was at West Edmonton Mall,” said Tammi. Morgan was pale, wasn’t walking and had a nosebleed. Tammi called her doctor who told them to bring Morgan home right away. “We were very fortunate we had the doctor we did, because a lot of kids are misdiagnosed for months, and from the time of symptoms to the time of diagnosis was less than two weeks.”
On April 13, 2006, Morgan was diagnosed with ALL, just a few weeks before her fourth birthday. She went through two years and eight months of treatments.
“She did really good,” said Tammi.
“I watched the cooking shows all the time, those were my main shows other than Sponge Bob,” said Morgan. “I want to be a nurse or a chef.”
While in treatment Morgan couldn’t have flowers, but was given lots of toys and did crafts. One of her favourites is beadwork, making bracelets, necklaces and key chains.
“I’m going to sell some at the garage sale, that’s my hobby,” said Morgan.
During the treatment years, Morgan also took piano lessons and private swimming lessons.
‘The swimming was against the Alberta Children’s Hospital’s better judgment but you had to sort of let her be normal,” said Tammi.
She also remembers after just being diagnosed, she wanted to go home for her birthday.
“She had next to no white blood cells, couldn’t walk and she kept saying she wanted to go home for her birthday, so her doctor let her go and said if she gets a fever bring her back right away,” said Tammi.
“Wade had to open my presents, I couldn’t even sit on the couch,” said Morgan. Wade is her big brother, who is now 11-years-old. According to Tammi, Wade was angry because he essentially lost his sister, and his parents.
She had to miss preschool but began kindergarten at Brentwood elementary school, where she is just finishing Grade two.
“We just asked the parents to call us when their kids were sick so we could make the decision to keep her home, we didn’t ask anyone else to keep their kids home. If more than three or four kids were sick we would keep her home,” said Tammi.
This was the first year Morgan was able to do the Relay for Life. She wanted to stay until midnight and just keep walking.
“It’s for a good cause,” said Morgan, trying to beg her mom to let her stay late.
The Chisan family plans to be a part of the Relay in years to come. Tammi has already recruited three people towards a team for next year.