Megan Alyssa Fox with President Clinton

Megan's story

Many folks believe HIV/AIDS is a disease of only Gays and Drug Users. Let me tell y'all this is about as far from the truth as possible. My name is Allan "Jay" Fox, IV and this is about how HIV/AIDS has affected the lives of my daughter Megan and myself. First, let me give y'all some facts and these are just the tip of the iceberg.

Facts

1. In 1992 it was estimated that as many as one out of every one-hundred people in the United States could be infected with HIV and not even know it!
2. In some countries over 50% of the population are known to be infected with HIV!
3. The only way to know that you are not infected with HIV is to be tested!

Our story started back in 1963, when Megan's mother, Carol, and I were married. However, it was not until 1982 that we decided to start a family. This is when all our problems began but at the time we were not aware of them. Carol's gynecologist told her that to conceive she would have to under go surgery for the removal of fibroid tumors. During this surgery, she received a blood transfusion that was contaminated with HIV. We were not to learn about the HIV for over eight years.

On June 15, 1984, Carol and I were blessed with the birth of our daughter, Megan Alyssa Fox. For the next six years we were as happy and proud as any parents could be. Then in November 1990, after some routine female surgery, Carol's white blood cell count was found to be low. After running several tests, Carol commented to her doctor, do you think I could have HIV, as I had a blood transfusion in 1982. Her doctor told her he did not think she had HIV, but agreed to test her so as to put her mind at ease.

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Carol's doctor informed her that she had tested positive for HIV. The following Monday, Megan and I were also tested. These results took about ten days to come back. When all test results were finely in, Carol and Megan had tested positive and I was negative. Since both Carol and Megan had HIV they were put on the same drug AZT. With both of them on AZT, there was no way to keep it from Megan that she and her mother had the same illness.

Carol was afraid of children being cruel toward Megan, so she wanted the fact that they had HIV to be kept a secret. Then in July 1991, the bottom fell out as Carol was diagnosed as having lymphoma cancer.

For the next five months Megan watched her mother get sicker and sicker from the same HIV that they both had. Then on Christmas day 1991, my wife of twenty-eight years and Megan's mother died of lymphoma cancer brought on by AIDS.

I felt it was much more important to spend quality time with Megan then make rich people richer. Therefore to spend as much time as possible with her, I quit my job. By doing this I qualified for survivor benefits from Carol's Social Security as long as I took care of Megan. By changing our lifestyle and dipping into our savings I felt we could survive.

My plans were to travel and show Megan as much as possible during the summer of 1992. Then since Dr. Philip Pizzo of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was World renowned for his research on HIV/AIDS I wanted to get her enrolled in one of his HIV/AIDS experimental protocols at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland.

We sold our home in Texas and moved in with my sister to maintain a residence of a sort. Then Megan and I hit the road for Alaska and the adventure of a lifetime. We traveled all summer and everywhere we went, I told both friends and strangers about how Carol had gotten HIV/AIDS and passed it on to Megan. After traveling over 18,000 miles and experiencing nothing negative about Megan having HIV, we arrived in the quaint little fishing village of St. Michaels, Maryland. This was where Carol had grown up and was now buried. We rented a little house across the street from Megan's, grandmother and grandfather. Besides being across the street from her grandparents and two blocks from Carol's grave, we were only a one and a half hour drive from NIH, and Dr. Pizzo, and his outstanding research team.

Upon our arrival in St. Michaels, I decided since the local population was only about 1,200, it might be easier to be public about Megan's HIV, than try to keep it a secret. During the 1992-93 school year, Megan attended St. Michaels Elementary School where I made my first public talk about Megan's life with HIV. Unknowingly, I was creating a support group of the entire community for Megan and myself. Had it not been for this support, I feel Christmas of 1992 would have been a total nightmare.

In January 1993 Megan was accepted at NIH where Dr. Pizzo and his HIV/AIDS research staff would follow her. This was where both Megan and I first came in contact and made friends with our true peers, those being other children with HIV/AIDS and their adult care givers. At first it was great support getting to know these children and we looked forward to our visits to NIH to see our new friends. However we no longer look forward to our visits to NIH because so many of these children who were Megan's friends have died of complications brought on by HIV/AIDS.

Megan and I again spent the summer of 1993 traveling over 17,000 miles and returning to the Yukon Territory and Alaska. By the time we returned to NIH at the end of the summer, Megan had gone into full-blown AIDS. Although Megan is in the full-blown AIDS condition she still managed to attend school and has been promoted to the fifth grade.

During the summer 1994, we did not travel because Megan, had to return to NIH several times because, we are trying to start her on a new experimental HIV/AIDS drug therapy.

Had it not been for Dr. Pizzo and his fine research team at NIH I doubt that I would be telling y'all about Megan and her battle with AIDS. Therefore, for the sake of your children and the rest of the world write your Congressional Representatives and Senators and tell them a cure must be found by the turn of the century or the children of today could very easily be the last generation of this Earth.

-Allan "Jay" Fox, IV
More on Megan, and other AIDS links at AIDS on the Eastern Shore.

Megan Alyssa Fox, died June 3, 1996 of AIDS. The daughter of the late Carol Harper Fox, Megan was a strong advocate of AIDS awareness. She traveled throughout the United States and Canada with her father, Allan "Jay" Fox, IV, telling her story about AIDS. Born in Houston, Texas on June 15, 1984, Megan died peacefully at her home in Royal Oak, Maryland. She is survived by her father and adoptive mother, Jeanne Hanrahan Fox; sister, Kathleen Morris; brother, Brad Morris; grandparents, T. Walter and Irma S. Harper of St. Michaels, Maryland; grandfather, Allan J. Fox, III of Ingram, Texas; numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and many friends.