Smithtown Native Gets Back to Work After Conquering Cancer – Twice

When Smithtown graduate Meredith Jorgensen was first diagnosed with cancer at age 28, in December of 2008, the initial reaction was denial, she recalls.

"It couldn't really be that," she said. "You hear about people having cancer scares. I figured it would be, like, 'Oh, OK. We'll figure it out.' But then it kept getting worse and worse."


Fast forward and after receiving a couple rounds of chemotherapy injections, months later Jorgensen and doctors thought they had got rid of the uterine cancer.

Then in 2012, the news came again.

"Horror," she recalled again. Jorgensen and her husband, Chris Cooke, had believed she was pregnant with their first child. But the test had only got the couple's hopes up. Instead of expecting a child, Jorgensen's cancer had returned – the odds were better, she said, of winning Powerball. 

"It was just despair and sadness. Chris and I were blindsided. It went from the happiest evening, to the worst."

But Jorgensen and her husband have won something far better than Powerball since then: after the cancer spread up to her lung, Jorgensen defeated her cancer this past May. She returned to her job just last week as a reporter for WGAL News 8, out of Pennsylvania.

The 33-year-old, who wrote for the high school newspaper and was inducted into the Smithtown Hall of Fame this year for her prowess on the track – she was named Smithtown's Athlete of the Year in 1998 – likened her return to work to the first day of school. Though this week, she said that her struggle in between was nothing like a kids' typical summer.

"It was daunting, looking back. In the thick of it, you absolutely get into survival mode. It was left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot."

While she was sick, Jorgensen recalled that in addition to countless letters from her audience at the news station wishing her well, friends from the Smithtown area provided much-needed support as well. One thing that helped her get through some tough times though, was just a little slice of her childhood home cooking. Well, kind of home cooking.

"Anytime my friends would come down, they would stop at my favorite pizza parlor – Patio Pizza in St. James. They'd get a couple of pizzas, wrap them in tin foil, and that way I could eat it whenever I wanted. That was amazing," she said.

Beyond her friends and family – and Patio Pizza – Jorgensen also credited the power of prayer to get her through some of the darkest days. And while Jorgensen said her favorite part of being a reporter is telling other people's stories, she now has her own to tell. She's been more than open throughout her journey, providing several updates to viewers 

"This was a devastating diagnosis, and a journey to go through for me and my family," she said. "But every family has some crisis in life at some point. Whether it's health, the loss of a family member, a financial crisis: every family is dealing with something. And life is not fair. It's not going to go the way you think it's going to go. But it's all going to be OK, especially with a strong faith and a great support system."

While the uterine cancer required a hysterectomy, Jorgensen and Cooke are both still hoping to have a child. The Smithtown native said her "ovaries are ON!" in her blog, Cosmos and Chemo – which chronicled her path over the last few years – and they are hoping to find a surrogate mother.