Meet the Models: Lorraine Ward

Lorraine Ward, first diagnosed in 2007, currently in treatment

Well, my cancer came roaring back after nine years in treatment, and it’s taken almost a year to find the right protocol to bring it back into control.  But despite planning end-of-life scenarios and my funeral while working hard with my medical team to find a way to slow it down or stop it, it has been an astonishing, blessed year.  First, I have two  more grandsons to join our beloved James Peter, 9 ½ ; a new cousin Jack (John Avery), who turned a year old yesterday (May 7) and a new brother, MJ (Matthew Julian), who is just eight weeks old. What a delight to live to see and come to know and to love these new little boys; what a delight to have my sons (John, James, and Matthew) and their wives naming their sons after their brothers; what a delight that I have survived long enough to see James Peter start at Fenn next fall as a fourth grader.  What a privilege to be surrounded and supported by a beloved community as The Fenn School has been for our family for 23 years; what astonishing love and loyalty my family and friends have given me not only in this year of challenges but for the last ten years.  What extraordinary care I have gotten from my MGH team of doctors and nurses.  Runway for Recovery reminds us that we live best in the embrace of others who understand and do not shy away from the challenges of cancer.  It reminds us that our families need care as much as we do on this cancer journey. And the journey reminds us that every day is precious and finite and unique and that it is best to use our time (however long or short we have on earth) with compassion for others, with loyalty and love to those who sustain us, with a sense of wonder and gratefulness, and with open hearts for children everywhere in the world—they are the magnificent miracle of it all.