Megan, 4, ready to return home after beating cancer

A FOUR-year-old Cork girl who has spent the past nine months battling a brain tumour will have the special honour of ringing the bell at New York’s Presbyterian Children’s Hospital, after she finishes her final course of radiotherapy tomorrow.

Megan Malone from Kilnamartyra near Macroom was given just weeks to live by doctors after she was diagnosed with the rare cancerous tumour in October.

However, her parents refused to accept this and made the difficult decision to stop their daughter’s treatment in Dublin and take her to New York.

Megan was accepted for the specialist Head Start treatment programme at the Presbyterian Children’s Hospital and began to show improvement almost immediately.

After seven months in New York, the Malone family moved to Boston in July, where Megan has been undergoing radiotherapy treatment.

While Megan had been confirmed as “visually cancer-free“, she underwent radiotherapy as a precaution. Doctors said that radiotherapy would kill any microscopic cancer cells that might remain.

The family is ready to fly home to Ireland later this week for the first time since leaving for the US on December 2 last year.

Megan’s treatment bill in New York has been negotiated down from $1.15 million (€792,000) to $850,000 (€585,000), to be paid by an anonymous donor. The HSE has paid the $340,000 (€234,000) cost of her treatment in Boston.

Around €200,000 has also been raised for the Megan Malone Trust through charity events.