Megan Lammy and Brian Crane knew each other years ago when they both were kids with cancer.
The two met again Saturday at Hurley Medical Center, this time as cancer survivors.
“He was in treatment with me,” said Lammy, now 21. “I hadn’t seen him in forever.”
Patients such as Lammy and Crane, now 28, treated at Hurley’s pediatric oncology clinic from 1987 on, were invited to attend the clinic’s first pediatric cancer survivors’ picnic held on hospital grounds.
“It’s just neat to see a lot of the people I haven’t seen in a long time,” said Crane of Clio, who was with his 11-month-old son, Evan.
Crane was 15 when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and went through three years of chemotherapy.
Lammy, who also had ALL, was treated at Hurley for five years and had a bone marrow transplant when she was 10.
“Just going through it gives you a whole different outlook on life,” said Lammy, who is entering her senior year at Western Michigan University. “You never know if something like this would happen to you.”
About 200 people, including a half-dozen current and 50 former patients and their families, attended the picnic.
“This is your day,” Dr. Susumu Inoue, director of pediatric hematology/oncology at Hurley, told the crowd. “This is to celebrate your life.”
