Schools
Video: Brother of Shepard teacher shares his story at St. Baldrick's assembly
Shane O'Donoghue talks about the fight of his life as students, staff volunteer to raise thousands.
Despite 15 surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation and drug therapy, Shane O’Donoghue talked about hope at Shepard High School during the annual St. Baldrick’s Foundation assembly.
“If there’s one thing that keeps cancer patients and their families going, it’s hope. We hope for better days of health, we hope for new research that can save our lives,” said O’Donoghue, the brother of Shepard teacher Colleen O’Donoghue.
In a detailed account of his 14-year battle with melanoma, O’Donoghue explained the regimen of how doctors monitor his health.
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“Every three weeks I visit the doctor. I’m prodded and poked, they draw blood. It’s a tough way to live. Thankfully there’s a lot of research going on right now,” he said.
Although more than 2,000 people filled the Shepard gym, one could not guess the size of the crowd. Students sat rapt while O’Donoghue explained what it’s like to endure treatment and live with the uncertainty that accompanies cancer.
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His speech included an account of brain surgery: O’Donoghue lay awake as doctors talked with him during the procedure.
“It was pretty freaky,” he said.
Because the surgery involved the part of the brain that controls language function, O’Donoghue lost the ability to speak, read or write for months afterward.
“I’ll never get back to normal, and never recover the same competence I had before my surgery,” said O’Donoghue, who warned students to avoid tanning beds.
Today, he continues to fight through stage 4 melanoma with the hope that treatment and research will provide a cure. In the meantime, he expressed gratitude to organizations like St. Baldrick’s that fund the hunt for a remedy.
Shepard raised more than $15,000 for St. Baldrick’s for the third straight year.
For the sixth straight year, teacher Dustin DeFrates raised the most of any individual with more than $2,700, while the U.S. Air Force JROTC program collected the most of any team with more than $3,500.
“I told them if they went over our goal that I would shave my head too. I’m very proud,” said senior aeronautical science instructor Major Dan Johnson before getting buzzed.
Here’s O’Donoghue’s speech on video:
And here are the Shepard volunteers, including many girls who also donated hair to Wigs for Kids, facing the clippers:
