Meg's Story...Press Clippings

WENDY REEVES Times Staff Writer  

Battle with brain cancer can't keep her out of the big game University of Alabama cheerleader Meg Ingram didn't wait for her doctors or coaches to say she could do her job today when the Tide takes on the Auburn Tigers: "I told them I was doing it.

"This game is one of the reasons I wanted to be an Alabama cheerleader," the 20-year-old Huntsville woman said Friday while loading the car before leaving for Tuscaloosa. Her parents, Lance and H.J. Ingram, will be there. So will her younger sister, Madalyn.

"Auburn's going down," said her mom, H.J., as the family joked in the driveway of its Hampton Cove home. The light-hearted atmosphere has prevailed at the Ingram household since Monday when Meg got a "clean MRI" after four months of battling brain cancer.

When they left the doctor's office, Meg and H.J. headed straight to Tuscaloosa to tell the cheerleading squad. Meg said her doctor just told her to be careful. And the guys on the squad were "overprotective" when she was doing stunts in practice, she said.

"I'm so excited," said Meg, who has been on the sidelines for every home game this season but one. "The way I see it, we have to win this game after everything we've been through over the last four years," she said, referring to the Tide's four straight losses to Auburn.

But what about what Meg has gone through for four months? The UA sophomore was getting ready to leave for school in August when she began complaining of a headache that wouldn't go away. Before the day was over, Ingram had emergency surgery to remove a tumor. Tests confirmed that she had cancer.

For 61/2 weeks, Meg had treatment in Birmingham. When she was released to go home a month ago, she was greeted with "Pray for Meg" signs in the front yard of every home along the route to the Ingram home. It's also written on the back windows of many neighborhood cars.

"That was such a nice surprise," Meg said. "How do you thank everybody for everything they've done to support us?" H.J. asked. "People will never know what it has meant to us." "Everything that everyone has done has made a world of difference," added Meg, who will start 12 months of chemotherapy Monday.

"So we still need those prayers," H.J. said. Meg has already registered to resume classes in January. For today, though, there's only one thing on the minds of the Ingram family. "We'll all be screaming, 'Roll Tide!' " said H.J., who plans to take a box of tissues. "I know I'll start crying."

Meg, in her second year of cheering for the Tide, acknowledged that she gets chills and a little teary at the beginning of each game when the announcer says, "This is Alabama football."


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