The morning before Coney Flowers was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital for leukemia treatment, she drove to a beach in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with her husband, Ben Flowers, to “watch the waves” and seek some comfort. While standing on the beach under a double rainbow, Coney received a phone call from her oncologist, Hanno Hock, MD, PhD. He asked how she was spending her last day before checking in for inpatient treatment and assured her that he was confident they would eradicate her cancer. She sent him a photo of the double rainbow, a meaningful symbol for Dr. Hock. “This is a great sign,” he said.
Today, a year and a half later, Coney is in remission and working hard to regain her strength.
Dr. Hawk and Mr. Hare
Shortly after Coney and Ben moved to Boston from Dallas, Texas, Coney received her leukemia diagnosis, turning their world upside down. Coney underwent an arduous round of chemotherapy, a clinical trial and underwent a bone marrow transplant, which, together, proved successful. Ben describes Coney as his “favorite superhero” and the strongest person he knows.
While receiving inpatient treatment, Coney had the idea to tell her story in the form of a children’s book with characters representing her journey: Dr. Hock as a hawk physician, herself as a hare, her nurses as butterflies and her clinical trial drug as golden berries. The final result was the illustrated storybook, Dr. Hawk and Mr. Hare, written and self-published by Coney and Ben.
“While undergoing treatment, she created this whole world with drawings and stories. I’ve been in awe ever since,” says Dr. Hock. “The fact that she could compartmentalize so much — go through treatment and finish this book — is truly poetic. Some patients have asked me to sign copies. Coney is a superstar, and I feel blessed to share some of that glow.”
Coney hopes her book will provide hope and a sense of comradery for cancer patients and their loved ones, and it’s already made an impact in the Mass General community. With funds provided by community fundraising group Voices of Hope, nurses at the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies, where Coney was enrolled in a clinical trial, gifted a few dozen copies to Mass General Brigham for Children, hoping to share her message with children and families in need of encouragement.
“This book is my way of thanking my care team for all they do for their patients,” Coney says. “I’m giving them their much-deserved ‘flowers.’”
“She’s just an unbelievably brave person. She got this devastating disease completely out of nowhere, and throughout it all, she was incredibly patient and positive — truly a glass-half-full person,” says Dr. Hock. “She inspires everyone she meets. That was true from the beginning. I feel just as lucky and privileged to have her as a patient as she seems to feel about having me as her doctor. I’ll never see somebody like Coney again. She’s a singular force of nature.”
A New Community
Coney says the silver lining to her cancer journey has been becoming a part of Mass General’s expansive community. She spent 40 days as an inpatient on Lunder 9, receiving chemotherapy, where she says the nurses were “absolutely incredible and so fun.” She depicts them as butterflies in her book, “floating into all of their patients’ rooms giving them care.”
Coney became close with her nurses, and they invited her to the following year’s Caring for a Cure gala, which, she says, gave her something to look forward to during hard moments.
“Fast forward to a year from then, and we made it to the gala, and got to dance with Dr. Hock and his wife and all the nurses from Lunder 9. It was magical,” she says. “They helped me get to where I am today. They listen to your stories, on good days and bad days, and they don’t judge.”
Funds provided by Caring for a Cure and other assistance programs at Mass General allowed Coney to fly her parents from Texas to Boston to support her and helped her replace her cosmetic products with brand new clean products after her bone marrow transplant wiped out her immune system.
Coney developed a friendship with one nurse in particular, Katie Kirkland, RN, who she says encouraged her in her darkest moments. During one specific visit to Coney’s room, Katie noticed something was off. Her usually bright and disco light-filled space was dark with shades drawn. Most surprisingly, Coney wasn’t writing. It was the second week of a particularly painful stretch of side effects from her chemotherapy and Coney was feeling especially down.
Katie decided it was time to step in. She encouraged Coney to get back to writing, assuring her that it would help her to feel better — and she was right, Coney says. “If I hadn’t had Katie in my corner cheering me on, I probably wouldn’t have finished the book when I did. I’m so grateful to her.”
Paying it Forward
Now, Coney is working on the second book in the Dr. Hawk and Mr. Hare series. She is also in the early stages of planning a fundraiser to support the work of Dr. Hock and her transplant doctor, Richard Newcomb, MD. “Targeted therapies and clinical trials don’t just happen, they rely on people who believe in this work and choose to support it,” Dr. Hock says.
Dr. Hock holds the Brant Carleton Endowed Chair in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Research, which he says has singlehandedly allowed him to split his time between the clinic and the lab — a feat that would be impossible without that philanthropic support.
“We are now more dependent than ever on private support to keep clinical trials running. Coney is someone who directly benefited from a clinical trial. Without it, we might not have gotten her to be able to undergo a bone marrow transplant,” says Dr. Hock. “Her story is real, and it’s powerful. It’s proof of what’s possible when we can offer innovative therapies.”
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