Janice
Blood Product Recipient
Relying on faith and the generosity of blood donors, Lincoln woman faces multiple cancers with courage.
If it were not for her unwavering faith, and the generosity of so many volunteer blood donors, Janice Moran might have a very different view on life. Today, she's an inspiration, facing life's most calamitous moments with courage and determination and a strong belief that nothing is going to happen to her.
Janice, 68, who lives in Lincoln with her husband Bill, is only a few short weeks away from her third cancer surgery since 2004. This time it's liver cancer, an offshoot of the colon cancer she fought a couple of years ago, but unrelated to a very serious case of inflammatory breast cancer nearly five years ago. It was after battling breast cancer that she was told not to expect to live more than two years.
"It's going on five years," says Janice, who also battled tuberculosis shortly after her surgery for breast cancer. The TB is behind her, and there appears to be no traces anymore of the breast cancer.
"I have never cried," she says, seated on a sofa in a room with glass walls and a neatly decorated Christmas tree at the Seekonk Congregational Church/United Church of Christ. She has worked at the church for 24 years, the last 10 as the pastoral assistant. "I have such a support system," Janice says. "I truly believe nothing is going to happen to me. If I didn't have faith, I'd be sitting around depressed, crying. I think the reason I don't get down is I'd disappoint people."
But family and friends, among them the church members, have given her strength. And every time she receives a blood transfusion she feels a surge of energy, increased will to fight, and an understanding of the necessity and power of blood donation. To those who don't donate blood, she urges that "If you can donate blood, you must. It feels wonderful afterwards, and you'll help somebody like me."
Her only problem she says is the stress she feels for her son, David, an FBI agent in Washington, D.C. assigned to an anti-terrorism unit. She has two other children, Laurie Moran May, PhD, president of Remington College in Memphis, Tennessee; and Erin Sartini, who lives in Cumberland, works part-time at the Veterans Hospital, and has become Janice's best friend. She also has four grandchildren, and is determined to be there for them.