Family Ties: Three siblings turn tragedy into leadership

It all happened too fast and too soon.

Chad Morgan of New Castle was 39 years old when he was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma. During his treatment over the next five years, his wife, Molly, and three children – Jacob, Kara and Emma – spent days, weeks, months then years in the halls and rooms of the Calaway-Young Cancer Center where Chad received his chemotherapy infusions.

“Spending time with our dad at Valley View (and at Mayo Clinic) was influential in all of our lives,” says Jacob, the oldest of the Morgan siblings, now 25. 

“At Valley View, we had great memories of the nurses we connected with, the service dogs they brought into the chemotherapy rooms. It was all the little things, the human touch that Valley View brought that make you feel a lot warmer than the cold sterile environment of some hospitals,” says Kara, 23.

After five years of treatment, Chad Morgan succumbed to melanoma in 2014. But instead of harboring ill feelings for the medical system, all three of the Morgan children felt drawn to the inherent service found with in medical care.

“Our dad’s cancer battle was our introduction to medical field,” says Kara. “We enjoyed being at the hospital.”

When Jacob, then Kara and finally Emma entered eighth grade, each decided to become Junior Volunteers, providing service to the patients at Valley View. The Morgans shadowed different doctors at the cancer center, worked in at the lab and throughout the hospital. When Covid hit and Emma, the youngest of the three, was no longer able to interact with patients, she turned her service into fundraising for Rally the Valley and organizing bake sales which benefited the Calaway-Young Cancer Center.

That experience at Valley View, paired with a desire to care for others propelled all three kids into the medical field. Today, Jacob is in his third year of medical school; Kara is a registered medical assistant for Dr. Tito Liotta at ValleyOrtho with aspirations to be a physician assistant and Emma, 19, is a sophomore at University of Colorado studying integrated physiology with plans to continue her medical training post-grad. She still volunteers at Valley View during school breaks.

“My dad’s battle initially inspired me to go into medicine,” says Jacob. “No one in our family works in health care, so Valley View was our way in. Just to get the patient experience and speak to people in the cancer center and see the behind-the-scenes work, confirmed those interests and motivated me to go to school for it.”

“Similarly, my initial motivation was the experiences we had as a family with my dad’s battle,” says Kara. “Once I had the opportunity to volunteer at Valley View, I worked in acute care, helping the patients and the caregivers. By getting involved, my interest in helping others and the medical field grew.”

All three Morgan kids look back on their time at Valley View with appreciation, not just for the experience they had, but that of their father as well.

“Valley View cares so much about that human nature caring side,” says Kara. “You get a different feel, a community feel. You can see that patient-centered care at work.”

“And the cancer center has grown so much over the years to help patients in our area,” adds Emma.

“If Valley View hadn’t been there during my father’s treatment, we would have had to travel to Denver or Grand Junction and even Mayo Clinic for a lot more of it,” says Jacob. "And it would have taken a lot of time away as a family during such a life-altering diagnosis, when what my dad really wanted was to spend time with us at home. That’s what he valued the most, and access to Valley View meant we got as much time together as a family as we could. That was something we will always have.”