PLACENTIA, N.L. —
Branch 33 of the Royal Canadian Legion sits on Beach Road in Placentia, right across from a long ridge of rocks that serves as a breakwater against the Atlantic Ocean.
Like any Legion, it’s meant for members only, but one part of the bar is open to any local who wants to drop in for a beer or a drop of rum, or to sink a few dollars into video lotto machines.
Up until four years ago, the face behind the bar was likely that of Nelly Murphy.
Murphy, 65, worked at the Legion for 30 years before she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December 2016.
The only break in that time was 14 years earlier, when she was forced to take a year off to fight breast cancer.
“I just found a little pea. That’s what it felt like in my breast. Like a little pea,” she says of the day she went to see a doctor in 2002.
She went for an ultrasound.
“They said it was scar tissue,” she said. “But then the radiologist called me back to have another scan done. And when I went back to have the scan done, this thing is after growing.”
Murphy had one breast removed and took chemo for about a year.
“It took them about five months to figure out what was wrong with me. By the time they figured out what was wrong with me, I was into Stage 4 ovarian.” — Nelly Murphy
In fact, she was one of the lucky ones, because her cancer occurred right in the middle of the breast screening scandal that rocked the province from 1997 to 2005.
Hundreds of women received incorrect treatment because of flawed hormone receptor tests. The mistake spurred a multimillion-dollar lawsuit and a public inquiry that clewed up in 2009.
“Mine was done right,” Murphy said.
“They didn’t think I’d end up with any (other) kind of cancer. They thought I was cured because they took my breast, and they took my lymph nodes.”
But there was still danger lurking in her DNA.
Faulty gene
Murphy said she first started feeling sick in the spring of 2016. Fluid was building up in her body, and she started having trouble breathing.
“It took them about five months to figure out what was wrong with me. By the time they figured out what was wrong with me, I was into Stage 4 ovarian.”
Tests showed she has the BRCA2 gene from her father’s side. It signals a high probability of breast and ovarian cancer. Her sisters carried it, too, and all had their breasts removed and underwent hysterectomies.
Murphy already had a hysterectomy 30 years earlier, after she had her children, but they didn’t remove enough to prevent the cancer from occurring.
Not alone
Murphy is not alone in her trials. Her husband, Bill, suffered a heart attack in 2015 that forced him to quit his job as a tanker captain.
The company told him that it could no longer have someone at the helm with a heart condition. At the time, he was ferrying new vessels around the coast of Africa. He received some disability, but no pension.
“They’re saying he can go to work, but he can’t go to sea. That’s all he knows.”
He has managed to grab some work surveying vessels while they’re docked, which helps keep the bills paid.
“We’ve been struggling,” Nelly admits.
She says they’d like to sell their home and move into a smaller place, but the market just isn’t there.
“This house is an omen. We should never have built it.”
Won’t quit
Still, the couple has managed to take a couple of sea cruises since her first diagnosis. It’s their way of making the most of life while they still can.
On the day she was interviewed, Murphy had just received a call from her oncologist.
“She just called me today. This chemo they got me on, she doesn’t think it’s working.”
When she was originally diagnosed, in fact, the doctor was not optimistic.
“The doctor came in and she told me that I only had three months, and I said, ‘Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know nothing. Don’t tell me. You don’t know that and I don’t know that.’”
She has fought that prognosis every day since, although her inability to see a doctor in person during the pandemic almost brought her to despair.
“I just kind of said, I think I’m going to throw in the towel, let this go. But I’m after having so many friends that text me and call me and said, ‘No, don’t you dare.’
“I’m not giving up. Definitely not. I’m going to keep at it.”
What keeps her going?
“Prayers. Truly. I have a really strong belief. And my mom and dad have passed since all of this,” she said.
“And determination. I refuse to quit.”
She has a message for anyone else in her plight.
“If you’re talking to anyone, just tell ‘em: never give up hope — keep fighting. Keep at ‘em.”
Twitter: @pjackson_nl
Peter Jackson is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering health care for The Telegram
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