Ms. McGrath, the coalition’s executive director, who advocated for health care that addresses the needs of those with cancer that lingers for years, died Jan. 6 in the McCarthy Care Center in Sandwich. She was 54 and had bought land and built a house in Sandwich with her husband, Jerry Noones, nearly a dozen years ago.
Last year, the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center honored Ms. McGrath as one of the One Hundred, “individuals and groups whose diligence and discoveries, philanthropy, and passion have helped advance the fight against cancer,’’ according to a hospital website.
“Through her I came to really believe in this notion of surviving cancer,’’ said Lesa Lessard Pearson, who succeeded Ms. McGrath as executive director of the coalition. “It’s not a death knell, it doesn’t necessarily have to be one, and that’s why working with Janice was such a joy. She lived that philosophy. It wasn’t just a motto that she would say, it was something she lived.’’
Ms. McGrath helped guide others through lessons she learned during the nearly two decades after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, years that included clinical trials for new treatments and an occasional reprieve of comparatively good health.
“She went through a bone marrow transplant, chemo, radiation, several trials,’’ said her sister, Donna Traut of Eastham. “Some of them helped, some of them didn’t. It’s been a lot for her, it really has been. She went through it all, always with grace.’’
For Ms. McGrath, there was no sense of being singled out.
“She was in the moment and didn’t waste time, and I think she was always like this,’’ said Betsy Tyrol of Pelham, N.H., a longtime friend and former colleague in the human services field.
“I think that became much more focused for her after she was diagnosed,’’ Tyrol said. “She didn’t hesitate. She just said, ‘OK, this is what I’m going to get and I’m going to make the best of it.’ There was no bemoaning fate.’’
