Lincoln boy awaits bone-marrow transplant to fight cancer

PROVIDENCE — The call to Katie McGloin came in July 2021 from the summer camp her son, Justin, 10 years old at the time, was attending.

The boy was sick. Could she please pick him up? 

When Katie arrived, the camp nurse said Justin was experiencing chest pains. 

“He was very pale and his heart rate was elevated,” Katie recalled in an interview on Tuesday. His doctor couldn’t see him that day, but she advised Katie to take him immediately to an urgent care center. 

When they got there, “the doctor took one look at him and said, ‘He’s going to Hasbro.’ ” 

As in Hasbro Children’s Hospital. 

The doctor notified the hospital, a Lifespan facility, that the boy was on his way, and when Katie arrived at the emergency department with Justin, he was admitted. Tests resulted in a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia, a bone-marrow and blood cancer.  

Justin, said Katie, “had never had a broken bone, no stitches, nothing.” 

Now he was facing a potentially fatal disorder. 

“That first night was a long night,” Katie said. “I was numb.” 

And then she, Justin, and the Hasbro team got going. 

After success, the cancer returns

Justin’s initial treatment included chemotherapy and required regular blood transfusions.

It worked.  

The boy’s cancer went into remission and he was discharged from the hospital to resume his life in Lincoln, where he and his mother live.  

But the cancer returned, not long before Justin was set to begin sixth grade at Lincoln Middle School. 

“After a short four month remission,” Katie wrote on Aug. 24 on Mighty McGloin, the Facebook page she created, “Justin’s treatment has begun again so he can get back to being a fun loving eleven year old. Justin enjoys fishing, swimming, video games and building complex Legos.” 

And with that, Katie opened a public appeal for a donor who could provide the bone marrow that must be transplanted into her son. Normal cells from such a donation will grow inside a patient’s bloodstream, producing the healthy platelets and red and white blood cells needed for survival.