JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Meghan Dawson and her friends are spending a night at the ballpark watching the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
But that night at the ballpark isn’t just any other night for Dawson, a 16-year-old junior at Menendez High School who pitches for the Falcons softball team.
It’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Night supporting the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund, an organization that Dawson and her family were introduced to during one of the most difficult times of their lives.
Dawson’s story begins in December 2021 when she noticed unusual physical issues in her leg and lower back. That began halfway through Dawson’s freshman year. Playing sports, the natural assumption was that it was a strain related to playing softball.
Dawson was halfway through her freshman year when she started to have pain in her lower back and leg. But testing revealed that Dawson had a tumor in her spinal cord.
“It was overwhelming at first,” Dawson said. “Obviously when I was in the hospital I was like ‘when is this ever going to end? I just want to get out of here.’”
Dawson had surgery to remove the tumor. That is when doctors discovered she had stage II ependymoma. According to the Mayo Clinic, “ependymoma is a type of tumor that can form in the brain or spinal cord. Ependymoma begins in the ependymal cells in the brain and spinal cord that line the passageways where the fluid (cerebrospinal fluid) that nourishes your brain flows. Ependymoma can occur at any age, but most often occurs in young children.”
Dawson spent a week in the hospital and a was out of school for a month.
“Having the support by my side really means a lot because obviously you’re going through hard times,” Dawson said.
A few months after her surgery, Dawson started her first high school softball season. She hit .352 with a home run and scored 19 runs for the 13-9 Falcons. In the circle, Dawson struck out 16 in 15.1 innings.
“My coach started noticing that I was playing through pain and I wasn’t telling him about the pain,” Dawson said. “He pulled me to the side and said, ‘hey you have to let me know when you’re experiencing pain’. I was like ‘oh I’m going to start physical therapy. It will all be fine’. Then he gave me a talk saying that ‘I don’t like seeing you play through pain. I don’t like seeing you play knowing that you’re in pain and so I’m just going to have to pull you aside.’”
Dawson did not play for the second half of her freshman season. It took her almost two years to fully recover from cancer. Dawson has to undergo an MRI every six months and has physical therapy weekly. She is playing softball again and is still throwing 60 mph fastballs. While recovering the past two years, Dawson and her family connected with the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund.
“What we learn when we talk to parents and families who have a child with cancer, we hear that they drop everything,” said Jay Fund CEO Keli Coughlin. “It becomes that the only thing that’s really important is making sure that your child gets the treatment that they need to have the most successful outcome possible. Part of what we do with the Jay Fund and providing financial and emotional support is really to allow parents hopefully to be there for their children and not have all the stress that goes along with it.”
The foundation chose Dawson to throw out the first pitch at the Jumbo Shrimp game.
“Meghan was just a natural fit,” Coughlin said. “She’s inspiring. She has so much tenacity and got through her cancer journey. And to see her back out playing, we just wanted to celebrate her.”
Dawson was one of 52 families who the Jay Fund is helping who attended the game last week. Since its inceptions in 1996, the Jay Fund is nearing 6,000 families that it has helped.
“The childhood cancer patients and their families who we get to interact with at the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund are inspiring to us,” Coughlin said. “We see them, they’re regular kids. Nobody expects to have a child diagnosed with cancer and when that happens life changes overnight, but what doesn’t change is the fact that there are still parents who love their kids and kids that want to be kids. Part of what we’re doing here tonight is connecting these families together. Giving them the opportunity to take a time out from cancer, to gather together to have fun, to make memories together and to talk with other people and connect with other people who can understand the journey that they’re undergoing.”
To any child who is diagnosed with an illness, Dawson has one message to pass on: “It might seem overwhelming right now, but as things happen and as you go down the road, you’ll be OK. You will use that as your testimony and you’ll be fine in the end.”