Long-time friends fight cancer together
Dec 13, 2024, 6:38 PM | Updated: 6:47 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Evelyn Ealy and Irma McCoy have traveled together, competed in bowling tournaments together, and now, are fighting cancer together.
“I’m glad we went through it together,” Ealy said. “It would have been more challenging by ourselves.”
The two have known each other since the ’80s. They first met when their daughters were playing on the same softball team, and they’ve been BFF’s ever since.
Irma McCoy (right) and Evelyn Ealy (left) speak about their shared cancer experience. (KSL TV)
Last year, the long-time friends were both diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a rare blood cancer that occurs when the bone marrow produces excess white blood cells.
“That usually doesn’t happen when you have two friends, especially around the same time, considering the rarity of this disease, having to go through the same experience,” said Dr. Bryan Huber, an attending physician in the Bone Marrow Transplant unit at Intermountain Health.
After undergoing treatments in Las Vegas, where Ealy and McCoy are from, the pair came to Intermountain LDS Hospital to receive stem cell transplants.
“The whole idea behind a stem cell transplant is to take someone’s immune system and modify it by eradicating disease, and taking someone else’s immune system via just a simple blood transfusion and giving that to them so it can develop and fight the cancer itself,” Huber said.
Just six months apart in age, Ealy and McCoy remain close, literally. Their hospital rooms are right next to each other, making it easier to head to the rec room together to play Bingo or make gingerbread houses.
The pair making gingerbread houses in the hospital’s recreation room. (KSL TV)
Their journeys haven’t been easy.
“I am where the Lord wants me to be. And however it works out, it’s what it meant for me. And so I accept that,” McCoy said.
But they keep on laughing.
“I was sad about hair,” Ealy said, referring to losing hers during chemo.
“Hair’s nothing,” McCoy retorted.
“As soon as I get out of here, I’m gonna buy me some!” Ealy responded.
Evelyn Ealy and Irma McCoy inside one of their rooms. (KSL TV)
Though it may not be how they envisioned their lives, the friends agree that having the support of each other has made all the difference.
“Just somebody that you can call and say, ‘Hey, what’s up? How you feel today? Is the nausea better? Do you feel like walking?’ You know. I can’t put that into words,” McCoy said.
“It’s totally different. I would not have wanted to go through this by myself,” Ealy added.
Ealy will be discharged from the hospital on Monday and go to Hope Lodge, a facility for cancer patients. McCoy will be joining her there a few days after so that they won’t be apart for too long.
