Lynnfield's Fighter Ready For An Evening With Champions

Ask Molly Malone what she'd rather talk about, the cancer which seriously sidetracked the Lynnfield 17-year-old's life, or her figure skating, and the answer isn't a surprise.

"Probably skating," said Malone after a recent practice at Reading's Burbank Arena.

There is much to talk about, and even more work to do. Malone will be performing Friday and Saturday at the 47th annual figure skating fundraiser "An Evening With Champions." Held at Harvard's Bright-Landry Hockey Center, the event has raised more than $2.8 million for the Jimmy Fund to benefit adult and pediatric cancer care and research at Dana-Farber.

Malone, who skates for the North Shore Skating Club, will join the professional skaters for their opening and closing numbers, plus perform her own routine. It was her own routine that Malone was recently practicing with her longtime coach Suzi Sweezey. Seven days before the show and her routine was still a work in progress.

But as much as Malone would make this a skating story, cancer always seems to find its way into the headline.

In November of 2015 Malone felt pain in her neck area. Two months later, after an MRI and biopsy, she was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a type of bone cancer that hits young people.

She completed radiation treatments in June of 2016, then completed chemotherapy in September. Along the way there were blood drives, trivia nights, a Music For Molly night, a Skating For Molly Night, a GoFundMe page, an appearance on the WEEI Jimmy Fund radio-telethon, and even a helicopter ride over Lynnfield courtesy of Above the Clouds. January 5 was declared Molly Malone Day in Lynnfield, a day that also included a ceremony at a Lynnfield Selectmen's meeting with Cops For Kids With Cancer. All the above was chronicled on Facebook on Molly's Fight.

She's in remission now, but her opponent never really goes away. Cancer is an annoying neighbor, a tough competitor, and for Malone, a reason to keep skating.

"Unfortunately I'll never really be in the clear completely but the risk goes down every day," said Malone.

You'd think cancer was more than enough of an obstacle. But while practicing her jumps off ice last April, Malone broke her right ankle in four places. She didn't skate again until early August. That's when the call came from Dana Farber asking her if she wanted to perform in An Evening With Champions. Her ankle said no. But Molly said yes.

"It means so much," said Malone. "The Jimmy Fund has been so great with everything. They saved my life. To be able to give back with something I love, with skating, it's so important to me."

Her ankle would just have to deal with it.

"She's doing this big event so we're doing a limited program," said Sweezey. "We're trying to put a lot of personality into it so people don't miss the jumps so much. And even some of the footwork, the actual footwork bothers her a little bit. But she's going to ham it up so it will be great."

A new program requires extra work for Malone and Sweezey. Though Malone's ankle will prevent the juvenile level skater from doing any jumps, any kind of performance on the Harvard ice will be an accomplishment.

"To come back from what she's been through is just unbelievable," said Sweezey. "I remember the day, she came to skating and she said her back was bothering her. She called her mother and she was going to the doctor that day. Probably a month and a half before that we were working on a layback spin, which is hard on your back. So she said that her back bothered her a little bit or that she thought she slept wrong. I said 'oh ya, you probably just slept wrong, it's probably fine.' A few weeks later it wasn't better and she went to the doctor. Within three days they found out that she had cancer. It was just such a shock."

But in true New England Patriot fashion, both Malone and Sweezey are on to Harvard.

"I'm almost back to where I was," said Malone. "Not quite jumping yet, but the spins and the artistry, I'm almost back to where I want to be."

Friday won't be the first time Malone will be on the Harvard ice for An Evening With Champions.

"I couldn't skate this time last year so I went in a wheelchair and they pushed me around on the ice in a wheelchair. It was hard. I remember not feeling well at all that day and we had to leave early. We didn't even stay for all of the show. I was still technically admitted in the hospital at the time and they had given me a temporary release just so I could go and have fun at the exhibition and I did. It was so great just to be out, I think even to be on the ice even though I wasn't on my feet. It felt really great."

It was around that time that Malone was warned by doctors she might not return to her previous form. The warning didn't sit well.

"I was told I that I might even never be able to regain all the strength that I had and I remember thinking as soon as I heard that I was going to prove them wrong. They never said that I would never be able to skate again, but just the strength aspect of it, they thought it would be a little risky to go out and jump again. I remember thinking that I was going to do it anyway."

Malone will skate this weekend to Fighter by Christina Aguilera. Normally she performs to slower songs, with more ballet-like skating. But the lyrics to the 2002 song seem to be directed at her cancer.

'Cause it makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

"It's very out of my comfort zone," said Malone. "I've liked that song for so long. Now it has a whole new meaning for me."

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Photo by Bob Holmes