With September being Kick Childhood Cancer Month across Major League Soccer, the Subaru Love Promise Playmaker will turn its focus to telling to stories of those families who are or have battled the disease. Ahead of Philadelphia Union's home contest at Subaru Park against the New England Revolution on Saturday night, we're proud to honor and tell Rylan McNeill's story from his father Justin.
In June of 2019, Rylan McNeill was only 7 months old when he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), after contracting an infection that required a 17-day stay in the intensive care unit at the Bristol Meyers Squibb Children’s Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. A few days after his diagnosis with AML, Rylan began his 15 month battle with cancer, when he received his first round of chemo therapy.
The rounds of inpatient chemo therapy often required stays at the hospital for up 45 days, and Rylan was quickly dubbed the “Mayor” of the pediatric oncology floor. Every morning he would wake up and come to the nurse’s station in his walker to greet them with the biggest smile and his bright blue eyes before venturing off to the rooms of all the other patients to brighten their day as well. Rylan went through three rounds of intensive chemo therapy there, before sadly his leukemia relapsed.
Rylan was then transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he received a bone marrow transplant two days after Christmas. Throughout the process, at only 15 months old Rylan demonstrated the truly meaning bravery and resilience. Rylan always found a way to prove the doctors wrong when ever they would under estimate his grit, and one of his care givers used to always say, “Rylan didn’t read the medical books. He doesn’t know he is supposed to feel sick right now.”
Unfortunately, in March Rylan again relapsed less than four months after his bone marrow transplant, and the only option was a chemo therapy designed to give him as much quality time at home as he could. Rylan never stopped fighting and in May he was once again in remission and enjoying his summer making the most out of life like only he could. He loved spending time taking boat rides, feeding the ducks, swimming, and taking strolls around the neighborhood where he quickly brought a smile to everyone he came in met. On July 25, 2020, Rylan woke up dizzy and was admitted to the hospital for the final time. In the early morning hours of August 7th, Rylan lost his battle against leukemia.
Although this is Rylan’s story, to understand who he was you have to understand his essence. One of Rylan’s caregivers once said about Rylan, “there is something almost unspoken that we feel working with children who face life-threatening circumstances. Some children have an energy that feels so distinctive and exceptional, as if they were given everything in life upfront and their journey here is really only to have an impact others. You shutter at the thought that their energy burns so bright it is not meant to be with us on this earth for very long, and that was Rylan. He had a personality that everyone gravitated towards, a love for life that was palpable, a smile and laugh that were beyond infectious. Rylan came into the world and touched many lives, more than someone who will live to an old age.”
After his passing, we learned Rylan’s life and love forever changed so many people. For some they were big changes, like the resident doctor who decided to pursue a career in oncology after caring for Rylan. For others the changes he inspired may seem like they were smaller, but he showed us without words that these smaller things end up having the biggest impacts in life, whether it’s to be a little more kind, to take life a little less seriously, or to spend just a few more minutes with those we love. These are Rylan’s legacy.
