Parents recall son’s brave illness battle

WELLS — Patrick McDonough, the 2 1/2-year-old Wells boy who died last week of leukemia, was remembered for the spirit he showed during his 10-month struggle with the disease.

Edward and Pamela McDonough told the 600 people at their son’s funeral service Monday in St. Mary’s Catholic Church that Patrick’s remarkable strength during his ordeal had taught them a lot about life.

“If he were here today, he’d say, `Get on with it,”‘ Edward McDonough said.

McDonough and his wife said Patrick taught them to hope and gave them the confidence they needed to cope with his illness.

The toddler also was remembered for his fondness for cheeseburger parties, rides in a hospital’s glass elevator and Barney, the popular purple dinosaur.

Patrick, who became ill in November, was diagnosed as having acute myelofibrosis, a rare form of leukemia.

McDonough, an English teacher and football coach at Wells High School, and his wife, a guidance counselor at Exeter High School in New Hampshire, took leaves from their jobs to enable them to devote all their time to Patrick.

News of his illness prompted hundreds of New Englanders to volunteer to be tested to see if they would be a match for a bone marrow donation. A near match was found, but Patrick’s health fluctuated after the operation and he died last Wednesday at Children’s Hospital in Boston.

Patrick had admitted that day that he wasn’t feeling well.

“I’m sick,” his mother said he told her.

She said it was the first time during his long battle that Patrick had complained.

Just hours before he died, Patrick insisted on a ride in the glass elevator, a pastime he sometimes sought when he became bored in his hospital room.

“It was almost as if he was finishing up,” Mrs. McDonough said. “He taught me strength I didn’t know I had.”