The Best of Friends
By Cindy Hutter
Sarah Risko, Tara Lines, and Laura McNulty (left to right) make up for lost time on the playground. Their acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) diagnoses meant that they often missed out on such experiences when they were younger. Playgrounds are now one of their favorite places to hang out.
Few young women worry about not being able to have kids because of early menopause, or have concerns about lingering back or occasional knee pains – the same aches that years ago had signaled their cancer. Most adolescents just don't understand the general anxiety that arises from uncertainty about one's medical future.
"Regular friends don't always appreciate why certain things impact me the way they do. They can't relate to my experiences. These girls do," says Laura McNulty, 22, of her friendship with Tara Lines, 25, and Sarah Risko, 24. All are survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) now getting their follow-up care at Dana-Farber; and all have bonded in a way that embraces and empowers them.
McNulty and Risko were treatment buddies at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, and reconnected years later as pre-teens at the "Hole in the Wall Gang Camp," for children with serious illnesses, outside Hartford, Conn.
They stayed close, and in 2005 McNulty met Lines through a "Facing Forward" workshop run by Dana-Farber's David B. Perini, Jr. Quality of Life Clinic – a program of the Perini Family Survivors' Center. Facing Forward explores the ways being a childhood cancer survivor can affect one's self-image, social relationships, health, school, or work, and the pair found themselves to be kindred spirits. Once McNulty introduced Risko to Lines, the trio was solidified.
Lines says their strong bond is based on shared childhood experiences. Even after being in remission for almost 20 years, they still think about their disease every day, something only another cancer survivor can fully understand.
"I don't talk a lot about cancer with my other friends, especially those who have had family members who died of cancer," says McNulty. "I've had many people tell me, 'It happened when you were 3, and now you're 22. It's done, move on.' The thing is, cancer is never not going to be a part of my life.You don't get over it."
- Next: A lasting bond
- Page: 1 | 2 | 3
