On February 7, 2007, at the tender age of five months, Meghan Norris was diagnosed with a large tumor in her cerebellum. The pathology revealed it to be PNET, also commonly known as, medulloblastoma.  Due to her young age, Meghan's treatment options were severely limited and she was given less than a 20% chance of survival.  As you could imagine, our world utterly collapsed as we simply could not fathom losing our beautiful little girl.  After ten months of grueling treatment and a total of seven surgeries, including three brain surgeries, six rounds of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, Meghan emerged from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with "No Evidence of Disease."  The harsh treatment, however, has had many side effects, including widespread developmental delays, as Meghan lost almost a year of her life during a critical developmental period.  She also developed hearing loss in both ears. Since then, Meghan has attended feeding therapy at CHOP in order to learn to eat by mouth again, she attends physical therapy twice a week, and is participating in the New Jersey Early Intervention Program.  The road ahead will be difficult and filled with many challenges, however, we freely accept them, as the alternative is unimaginable.  What is truly amazing to our family is that the most brave person we have ever met is our 2 year old daughter.  Her courage and iron will are something to be experienced and cherished.

Meghan is now 7 ½ years old and enrolled in CHOP’S childhood survivor clinic.  This consists of meetings with a team of doctors every year and a routine follow up MRI every 2 years.  Meghan has steadily continued in her development, however, she still faces challenges every day due to affects of the brain tumor and the harsh treatment she received.  Regardless, Meghan embraces and enjoys life and loves her family completely.  She especially loves her dog “Chuck” and her now  6 month old brother Colin who was born in October 2013.  Meghan attends the Joseph Capello School in New Jersey, which is a special needs school, and is currently in the first grade.  Meghan’s future development is a mystery to all of us, however, none of us doubt for one second that she will confront every challenge in her life with courage, tenacity and hope.   She truly defines the term “Warrior”.

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Written by: Paul and Claire Norris
Updated April 2014