Morgan Loudon rests with her mother, Melissa, in 2013 when Morgan was 8 and undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of childhood cancer.

BELOIT — It started with a tummy ache.

Morgan Loudon of Beloit was just a second grader, an age when stomach aches are not at all uncommon. In fact, “my stomach hurts” is a time-honored excuse for getting out of something — like school.

That was not Morgan’s way, however. She liked school. But the stomach pain kept getting worse.

Multiple sets of X-rays and an early diagnosis of ordinary gastrointestinal distress did not satisfy Morgan’s mother, Melissa, who at the time was a medical imaging technician. She suspected that not all the angles of her daughter’s tender midsection were being captured in the pictures.

A new doctor ordered different scans, and this time the results were alarming. A softball-sized tumor was found near her left kidney and it was wrapped around a pair of vital arteries.

The diagnosis was an aggressive form of childhood cancer typically found in babies and toddlers. Morgan, however, was starting third grade, and instead of suffering from a simple tummy ache, she was facing treatment for an extrarenal rhabdoid tumor.

Melissa Loudon and her husband, Scott, were stunned. Their daughter was only 8.

“I didn’t know anything about cancer,” Morgan said, “except from seeing the St. Jude’s (Children’s Research Hospital) commercials on TV with the little bald kids. So that’s the first thing I asked: ‘Am I going to lose my hair?'” When the doctors said yes, Morgan remembers thinking, “This is perfect because I hate when my mom brushes my hair!”

“Even before my hair started falling out (from chemotherapy) I had my head shaved,” Morgan chuckled, explaining she didn’t want the nuisance of hair falling out on her clothes “and stuff like that.” In her mind, she said, she handled the public-facing part of her treatment well.

Losing her hair was the easy part. Ten rounds of chemotherapy, a month of radiation, and surgery to remove the tumor and her left kidney was the hard part. Being sick became physically and emotionally draining.

“I didn’t want to feel sick. I already felt sick, my stomach (hurt), and I had to go to the hospital and they would treat (the illness) but it would make me sicker,” Morgan said. “I hated it.”

She said her parents handled the emotional turmoil as best they could under the circumstances, leaning on each other for strength for their daughter and themselves. There were occasional tears, she said, but there was always love and support that also came from Morgan’s two older sisters, Taylor (32) and Carleigh (22).

It was particularly hard for Carleigh, Morgan explained, because she was also young — about 10 years old at the time of Loudon’s cancer treatment.

“She didn’t completely understand (cancer) and she couldn’t escape it either,” Morgan said. “She’d come home from school and her sister had cancer, and she’d go to school and people would ask her about her sister’s cancer and how she was doing. That’s really hard.”

Enduring surgery and treatment at Akron Children’s and Akron General hospitals was grueling for Morgan. As she emerged from her middle school years and entered West Branch High School, though, life began to take on a patina of normalcy. Morgan excelled academically and became captain of the girls softball team that won the district championship her junior year and finished as regional runners-up.

“High school was where I really began to see my cancer more as part of my life and less as part of my (identity),” Morgan said, adding that people no longer thought of her simply as “the cancer kid.”

Morgan Loudon is now 20 and flourishes with no evidence of her disease as she finishes a degree in nutritional science at The Ohio State University. She will graduate a year early in May and move to Colorado, where she will work for two years as a grade 7 through 12 science teacher for Teach for America, which is part of the AmeriCorps national service network. Following that, she will enter school to become a physician’s assistant.

“I take school very, very seriously,” she said. “School is one thing I’m very passionate about. I do think it’s a big deal — I think education is very important.”

Morgan has been involved with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation since her days in cancer treatment. The foundation was established in 2004 and is known for its signature St. Patrick’s Day head-shaving events to build awareness for childhood cancer and raise research funds. Named for a fictitious “saint” (Baldrick is merely “bald” coupled with the second syllable of Patrick), the Foundation has raised in excess of $350 million in the past 20 years.

“They are such amazing people. I can’t say that enough,” Morgan said.

Her mother Melissa now works for the Foundation, and this year Morgan will be one of five St. Baldrick’s ambassadors.

“I will be an advocate and tell my story,” she said. “I’ll do my best (between school and working on weekends) to attend events.” This includes the St. Baldrick’s head-shaving fundraiser at Penguin City Brewing in Youngstown on March 15. Organizers hope to raise $50,000 for childhood cancer research and advocacy. Morgan herself has raised more than $15,000 for St. Baldrick’s.

Does Morgan think of the future? “All the time,” she said, sounding an unmistakable note of optimism. “And the same thought always (comes back to me): Things are going to work out in the end. Even if it’s hard, you get through hard. That’s how life goes.”

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mreichert@tribtoday.com or Features Editor Ashley Fox at afox@tribtoday.com.