Jaime Vick Moran, Kiski teacher and inspirational cancer fighter, dies at 28
Leechburg resident Jaime Vick Moran beat leukemia three times, but she couldn't overcome an infection caused by a bone marrow transplant.
Moran, the Kiski Area teacher and coach who inspired many with her courageous battle against leukemia, died Monday at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. She was 28.
Friends and family said Moran, who taught math at Kiski Area Intermediate School and coached girls volleyball at Kiski Area High School, became an inspiration to them and the community through the way she fought cancer head on.
“She was just a person of grace and courage that had a tremendous strength,” said Ellen Toy, who coached with Moran for four years and was thrust into the spotlight when both were diagnosed with cancer in late 2009 and early 2010.
“Twenty-eight years was such a short life for someone who had so much to offer,” Toy said.
Moran was first diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia at 14. She fought the leukemia off every time — and was cancer free at the time of her death — but couldn't win the final battle against graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), according to her twin sister, Jodie McCartney.
GVHD is common in patients who have had bone marrow transplants in the past.
“Words can't describe her as a sister,” said McCartney, who is a teacher in the Kiski Area School District and was Moran's roommate throughout all of their college years at St. Vincent College. “She was my best friend. Since we were born, I've done everything with her.”
“I was lucky to have a front-row seat to her life,” McCartney said. “Whether it was growing up together or seeing her get married or her seeing me get married, we were together for all the big moments.”
McCartney said through Moran's first two bouts with cancer, she acted as her sister's gateway to normalcy.
“The last time she had cancer, her husband, Mark, was her inspiration to keep fighting,” she said. “Their love story is truly a love story to model all other love stories after. He showed what unconditional love is all about.
“He was her rock when someone else in that position might have been weak.”
Making her battle with cancer even more remarkable, Moran was a star basketball player for Kiski Area High School from 1998 to 2002 and at St. Vincent College from 2002 to 2006 — all while fighting the disease.
“Jaime was just a very, very special person,” said John Meighan, Kiski Area's superintendent.
“She was truly a Kiski person. She was an outstanding math teacher,” he said. “She was able to reach so many kids. She was one of those people who kids could relate to. She had such love and patience for what she did. Words just can't touch upon what a truly special person she was.”
Toy said those teaching skills often transferred to the volleyball court.
“She was a tremendous coach,” Toy said, fighting back tears. “She was always teaching, if not about volleyball or math, then about life.”
Toy said she and the volleyball players and students who knew Moran learned a lot by just watching how she dealt with her cancer.
“She fought to the bitter end,” she said. “We will always remember that smile. She could light up any room she walked in to.”
Moran, who leaves behind her parents, Dave and Debbie Vick, and brother Josh along with McCartney and her husband, Mark, and Toy's diagnoses inspired Kiski Area's “Jam the Gym,” a volleyball event that benefits multiple cancer charities.
Jodie McCartney said that, whenever she goes through a rough patch, she'll just think about her sister and remember her courage in the face of the hardest battle.
“If I'm having a bad day or think something isn't fair, I think ‘If she didn't complain, how can I?' For someone to go through something that hard and never have a bad word to say is truly remarkable.
“She was such an inspiration.”
R.A. Monti is a freelance writer for Trib Total Media.
Obituary on Page A4
