Profile /Tom Maloney
A cancer-kicking coach
By Louise Continelli
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 06/09/08 6:47 AM
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- Cancer survivor Tom Maloney poses with his daughter, Lara, 18, and “Parsley” at the Chestnut Ridge Equestrian Center.
Melanoma didn’t bodycheck 6-foot-4-inch tall Tom Maloney and prevent him from coaching his son Chris’ hockey team all the way to last year’s state championships. That’s one reason why this coach has been named one of the 2008 Roswell Park Cancer Institute Stars of Hope.
He even took his treatment shots during practice and games, he recalls.
Maloney was diagnosed with the most deadly form of skin cancer a few years ago, after finding a bump on the top of his shoulder.
“Mine was strange in that it was not part of a mole, which is the norm,” he says. “My tumor was below the top layers of skin and looked like a small cyst. I waited about two months before going to my doctor.”
At first even his family doctor didn’t think it was anything to worry about, Maloney says.
Maloney was treated with interferon, an immunologic therapy that helps prevent a recurrence of the disease, according to Roswell Park representative Deb Pettibone.
Maloney says he’s feeling “fantastic” now.
His wife, Debbie, believes that her husband, who worked throughout three surgeries and the yearlong interferon treatments, provided a good role model for the young hockey players.
“Tom showed a group of impressionable teenage boys that giving up is never an option,” she says. “The boys listened to and observed a man who never missed a practice or a game, no matter how early or late in the day they needed to be at the rink. Those 17 boys were given an opportunity of a lifetime to observe that no obstacle is too big if you face it with grace, dignity and perseverance.”
Now that the weather is warm and sunny, it’s tempting to forget that the incidence of skin cancer are skyrocketing. At least a million people will be diagnosed this year. The risk of melanoma has doubled in the last decade.
Blue-eyed Maloney wears a sun-screen with a skin protection factor of 50. And with two red-haired children — fair-skinned redheads may be more vulnerable to the sun — all the Maloneys are taking extra precautions these days, Debbie says.
A Niagara University accounting graduate, Maloney serves as vice president of Sanborn’s First Healthcare Products. Even through his ordeal, his professional gears were turning. He recalls striking up conversations with the nursing staff “about products they could use to allow them to focus more on direct patient care.”
Maloney also inspired his daughter, Lara, 18. She and her trainer, Lex Brown, raised funds for cancer research in “Saddle Up for Roswell” an annual horseback riding event. More than $25,000 has been raised at Chestnut Ridge Equestrian Center in Niagara County.
Maloney also advises seeing the world through your inner child’s holiday eyes.
“Keep positive thoughts, go about your normal routine as much as possible and visualize a future with friends and family who are key in helping to beat your cancer. Thank God for those close to you who do so much to help you overcome this disease,” he says.
Have an idea about a local person whose life would make a good profile or a neighborhood issue worth exploring? Write to: Louise Continelli, The Buffalo News, P. O. Box 100, Buffalo, NY 14240 or e-mail lcontinelli@buffnews.com
