AIKEN --- The young girl dashed to the table, a $5 bill extended out of her clenched fist.
On this muggy May evening, the city of Aiken held its annual Lobster Races. It was a time for fun rides and funnel cakes, as thousands celebrated the evening with the competing crustaceans.
Janet Parker set up a table at the festival. A simple sign asked for donations for Meredith Legg, the former USC Aiken basketball star. Parker sold decals adorned with Legg's jersey number -- 24 -- for $5 each.
The young girl plucked down her money, receiving a car sticker in return.
"Her mom said Meredith was her favorite player," Parker said.
One month after the conclusion of her basketball career, Legg found herself fighting an opponent tougher than any she's seen on the court -- cancer that threatened to steal her vision. Parker helped round up community support, assisting with fund-raising efforts for the Lady Pacers' all-time leading scorer.
On that sticky night, stranger after stranger approached Parker's table. Many of them said they didn't know Legg, but they wanted to help.
"It was amazing to me," Parker said, "to see people that I did not know come up to me and said they wanted to donate."
Seven months after radiation eradicated a tumor almost the diameter of a dime in her left eye, the 22-year-old Legg is back to normal -- or at least as normal as can be expected. She still doesn't have complete vision, but Legg drives herself to her job as an accountant. She also coaches a private school girls basketball team in Aiken.
Legg credits the community -- which sent so many cards, letters and flowers it filled her mother's car when they returned to Aiken -- for aiding her recovery.
"People don't understand how much it helped me to get through that difficult time, knowing people were praying for you and wanting the best for you," she said. "It was really reassuring and really nice."
"The prayers." Legg's mother, Robin said, "Lord, the prayers have come from everyone."
Someone to pull for
Meredith Legg ended her four-year collegiate career on a high in March. The feisty 5-foot-9 point guard, who admits to having little athletic ability, helped lead the USC Aiken women to their first NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in four years. She scored six points in her final game to become the Lady Pacers' career leading scorer, eclipsing the old mark by four.
Scoring never was a problem for Legg, who set multiple records, including most career points when she graduated from Hopewell High School just north of Charlotte, N.C. She continued to fill up the basket from the perimeter at USC Aiken, becoming the Lady Pacers' and the Peach Belt Conference's all-time 3-point shooter.
The 3-point line rests 19 feet, 9 inches from the basket. Sometimes Legg would pull up seven, eight, nine feet behind the stripe and fire the ball toward the basket. USC Aiken coach Mike Brandt never chided her for taking a bad shot.
"If she took a shot from way outside, she knew she had a chance at making it," he said. "So she was going to shoot it."
Intestinal fortitude was just one of Legg's many attributes that helped her excel, Brandt said.
"The thing that separated her from everyone else is that she was such a fierce competitor. She has so much confidence in herself. That's something I really admire about her," he said. "If she walks through the mall or walks downtown people aren't going to look at her and say that she's a really good athlete or a really good basketball player."
Legg, whose dogged determination on the hardwood became one of her biggest assets after she finished her playing days, noted the date of her diagnosis. Exactly one month earlier, she and her teammates were playing in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament championship game.
"God works in mysterious ways," Legg said. "I never question God for a second about why this happened to me. He doesn't want you to understand why. He wants you to handle the situation and not question him. And I know that. And I know he waited for me to find out, because obviously that tumor had been there for a while."
On the evening of April 8, a dark shadow surrounded Legg's left eye. She looked down, thinking there was a speck on her face. Maybe something on or next to her nose was blocking her vision. Nothing.
When she awoke the next morning she still couldn't see. After attending classes, Legg showed her bloodshot eye to the USC Aiken nurse. A referral to a local doctor revealed an early diagnosis of a detached retina.
Her boyfriend, Cody Flores, busted his eye open earlier in the day playing basketball. The pair didn't know just how grim her condition was. He joked: What was the pair going to do with two bad eyes?
The next day, Legg visited a specialist in Augusta. A grueling 51/2-hour visit featuring a battery of tests revealed a growth. She then was referred to the Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia. This was serious.
About noon that Monday, the slender Legg received the dreaded diagnosis: choroidal melanoma, cancer within the eye.
Basil and Robin Legg had their world shaken again: Their son, Trey, was diagnosed with leukemia five years earlier. Now their youngest of three children, a person in superior physical condition, battled for her life.
Then, Legg displayed her youthful wisdom, telling her parents three simple words: "Let's conquer it."
"I felt like they needed to hear that," she said. "I'm a strong person. I felt like I needed to take a stand and say that we're going to beat this.
"I wanted to reassure them that it's going to be OK."
In treatment
After learning she had a 15.8-millimeter tumor -- the normal eyeball size is about 25.4 millimeters (one inch), according to hypertextbook.com -- Legg faced a decision no college student should have to make: Remove the eyeball or try to attack the tumor. The fighter in her chose the latter option.
Three days after receiving the diagnosis, Legg underwent a procedure during which Dr. Carol Wills sewed a radioactive plaque to the outside of her eye. For a full week, the radiation put a full-court trap on the tumor. Legg remained in an apartment-type room at the center. No one was allowed within six feet of her.
"I was literally giving out vibes," she said. "I was radioactive."
The radiation zapped the tumor, turning it into a harmless scar. In an August checkup, the scar had reduced to 9.4 millimeters.
The cancer is gone, but she still has to undergo body scans and blood tests in the future. Legg no longer takes medication, only taking an occasional ibuprofen for a headache.
She can no longer wear contacts. Instead, she wears a pair of red-framed glasses which gives her 20/20 vision in her right eye but doesn't help much with her left eye. Sometimes, she'll grab for something in front of her and miss completely, her depth perception playing tricks with her.
Legg is allowed to drive, but she has to compensate for a blind spot that's easily twice as large as the normal one.
"Your body adjusts," Legg said. "You as a person have to adjust. If something like this happens to you, you just can't say you're not going to drive or look at a computer anymore. You just have to find a way around it."
Legg found a way to finish up her degree in business administration with a double concentration in finance and management. In early May, one month after her procedure, she walked across the stage at the school's convocation center, graduating cum laude with a patch over her left eye.
She returned to her parents' home in Warner Robins, Ga., where she continued the healing process. She remained there until July, when she joined URS Corporation Washington Division, a multinational engineering firm in Aiken.
The job came at a good time. Legg still was paying off the "thousands of dollars" in medical bills, because her parents' insurance policy only covered her through March 4, when she turned 22. Legg went online and bought "some rinky-dink" insurance plan to bridge the gap until she started working full time. In perfect health, she didn't need to go to a doctor. Or so she thought.
Nowadays, a doctor's visit to the Wills Eye Institute costs about $400, excluding travel, hotel room and food.
Enter Parker, a longtime USC Aiken basketball supporter along with her husband, Glenn. The two helped raise more than $4,000 by selling car decals. Legg said she's received about $10,000 in donations.
"I wanted her to come back to Aiken and see some visible sign that she had the love and support of the community," said Janet Parker, who said she knew Meredith's insurance issue. "She is a very special girl."
Gina Buckley, who works in USC Aiken's business department, said helping Legg was an easy choice. Buckley not only watched Legg on the court, but also got to know her well on campus.
"Meredith," Buckley said, "gave back to the community while she was here."
"I want to say a huge 'Thank You' to everybody," Legg said. "I really can't say enough about what this community has done."
Giving back
While she still receives support, Legg continues to give back. She recently attended a middle school volleyball match featuring Bailey Parker, the daughter of Glenn and Janet.
"Bailey really looks up to her," Janet Parker said.
Now, several faces look up to her. Legg is helping lead the girls basketball team at Mead Hall, coaching a group of players between the fourth and eighth grades. On the first day of practice, she worked her team solely on fundamentals. She also spoke from the heart.
"I'm not the strongest. I'm not the quickest. But I play the smartest," Legg told her team at their first meeting. "I'll teach you what you need to know to be a smart basketball player."
Legg will have her hands full trying to teach youngsters how to play the game. Basketball season began Friday and runs through January.
Moving forward
Whether Mead Hall has success or not, Legg and her family have plenty to be thankful for. In December, Trey's cancer will be in remission. Also in December, Meredith will have her eight-month checkup. In April, Meredith's scar is expected to be gone.
"They're alive," Robin Legg said about her children. "We just really have to keep an eye on her."
For now, the former USC Aiken basketball star continues to hold a strong faith in God. She and Cody continue their morning phone-call devotionals. On the few occasions he's forgotten to read the devotional, she's reminded him.
"We just pray about the passage and what it's taught us and how it applies to our lives," he said. "It's really encourages her to know God's there for her."
Brandt said the Aiken community is there for Legg as well.
He can't go two days without someone approaching him, whether it's at the golf course or the grocery store, asking about Legg.
"People truly, genuinely care about her," he said.
Legg said she's unsure of her future plans. She said she has a good job, and she'll remain in Aiken for now.
And she'll continue to be optimistic. Doctors have told her she may regain her vision after the fluid and inflammation reduces in her eye, which could be as early as spring.
For now, Legg will try to stay patient. Normally, cancer patients have to wait five years for remission. Because of her type of cancer. Legg will have to wait 10 years -- April 2019 -- to be considered for remission.
"The hard part is over," she said. "Now, it's just a waiting game.
"I don't sweat the small stuff, I really don't. Why get frustrated? If they never would've found that cancer I wouldn't be alive."
Reach Chris Gay at (706) 823-3645 or chris.gay@augustachronicle.com.
HOW TO HELP
Want to give to the Meredith Legg Cancer Fund to help defray her medical expenses? Contact USC Aiken coach Mike Brandt at mikeb@usca.edu or at 803-641-3491.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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