‘It’s hard to live with, but you can try to have fun’: How a boy and his family got through cancer

Morgan Shannon, 10, overcame stage 4 cancer with help from the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Morgan Shannon’s cancer journey can be told through the stuffed animals on his bed.

When he was diagnosed with stage four cancer at two years old, he only had a few.

Now, 10 years old and cancer-free, he has a mountain of them: gifts from friends, family and medical staff who saw him through a time of crisis.

“It’s not just a disease that affects the body, it affects every aspect of you and your relationships and your family,” said Jackie Rosenhek, the boy’s mother.

Rosenhek said they started noticing signs that something was wrong when Morgan was two.

He was lethargic and clingy; he didn’t want to eat, but his stomach was rapidly expanding.

They took him to the ER at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, and hours later, he was undergoing emergency radiation.

“It was really shocking because we knew something wasn’t right, but we never thought it was a life-threatening illness,” she said.

Morgan was diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer that spread into his abdomen, bones and the base of his skull.

Dr. Jitka Stankova, a pediatric oncologist, said that to shrink his aggressive tumours, he was given emergency radiation, something rarely done on a patient so young.

“We don’t like, in children, to use radiation too much... because they are growing and it has more late effects,” she said.

Morgan’s two-year treatment also included chemotherapy, surgery, stem cell transplants and immunotherapy, requiring many stays at the Children’s Hospital.

While Morgan was too young to remember that time, Rosenkhek said she and her husband, Grant Shannon, dealt with the trauma of seeing their child go through cancer treatment.

“There is a lot of screaming to the universe in private, and in public it was, ‘Everything is fine,’” she said. “I really had to block everything out and act like everything was normal.”

Although life wasn’t normal, Rosenhek said the programs offered through the Montreal Children’s Foundation made it easier during his stay, giving him outlets to have fun, including a tricycle to ride around the playroom.

“I’d go really fast, and the nurses would give me a speeding ticket,” said Morgan. “I still have one, and that I still haven’t paid since 2020.”

He keeps a copy of the ticket in an album full of keepsakes from that time, including cards from the staff who cared for him.

Stankova said while her work is vital in curing the cancer, donations given to the foundation offer the physical, social and financial support that families need to get through the crisis.

“We say that it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to take care of the oncology patient,” she said.

Morgan is now five years cancer-free, and while he’s living with permanent hearing loss and needs checkups, Rosenhek said their focus is now on the future.

“He’s just thriving and growing and living his life, and so we’re going with that,” she said.

Meanwhile, Morgan has some advice for other kids who may receive a cancer diagnosis.

“It’s hard to live with it, but you can still try to have fun,” he said.

The 22nd edition of the Caring for Kids Radiothon will be held on August 21, 2025, and broadcast on Bell Media radio stations CJAD 800, 95.9 Virgin Radio and CHOM 97.7.

The Caring for Kids Radiothon has raised over $29 million for the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation since its inception in 2004. Donate here.