Woman wins fight with cancer
Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Iqaluit (Nov 13/00) - In her dream, Gerri Mulley would see her best friend sitting at the foot of her bed.
It seemed as if she was trying to tell Mulley something.
Because that woman had succumbed to breast cancer just two months before the recurring dream began, Mulley took her nightly presence to heart.
"It was unusual," said Mulley.
"That dream actually prompted me to go for a check-up and that's when I found it," she said, referring to the group of small tumours that was growing in her left breast.
Mulley was only 39 years old.
So began the battle she still wages against the disease that is the leading cause of death among Canadian women.
Waging a battle
Almost 20,000 women will develop breast cancer this year. About 25 per cent of those women will die.
"When the doctor first told me, the first image that popped into my mind was a vision of me eight feet below ground," said Mulley.
Strength poured from her blue eyes as she spoke about her ordeal. She didn't cry.
Nine years have passed since that day. Mulley has undergone more than one biopsy, two lumpectomies, has had cysts drained and had a scare this summer when an ultrasound detected a suspicious mass. The find turned out to be a false alarm. Mulley said she was still waiting to see her daughter walk down the aisle.
She said her secret to survival was her attitude.
"I recommend this for anybody -- learn a lot, be a real integral part of your own diagnosis and follow-up. If you don't, you don't have the same courage or commitment to healing that you do when you have the information," said Mulley.
"If somebody else is making decisions for you, you're in the dark and your fear builds. You are fearful of your mortality."
Health care providers noticed her zest and her positive outlook on life and Mulley became immersed in helping other women deal with the pain and aftermath of breast cancer.
That work also helped her deal with the personal losses she had to face. Her mother, her brother and her father-in-law were all claimed by cancer. Her cousin continues to fight the disease.
"I went to a woman's house who had just been diagnosed. She was 36 or 37 and she had a nine-year old who couldn't touch his mother when he found out. She was devastated," said Mulley, still moved enough by the experience that it brings tears to her eyes.
"I went and sat with them for over three hours. At the two and a half hour stage, he went over and gave her a hug. It was the most incredible moment of my life. I walked out of there and thanked God for the opportunity. I had never experienced something as wonderful as this."
No less a woman
Mulley said she and her partner Bruce approach life differently now. Money issues have moved to the back-burner, while sharing a simple cup of coffee or looking into one another's eyes is a gift they appreciate each day.
"We went through an incredible growth period. We both realized how much we love each other for who we were on the inside, not the outside," said Mulley.
Unlike many who have been touched by breast cancer, Mulley has never felt like she was any less of a woman. Her surgeries left the shape of her left breast altered, but because her cancer was detected at such an early stage, she was able to avoid having her breast removed. She was also spared the trauma of chemotherapy and radiation.
Years later, when an art course demanded she produce a piece about an event that touched her life, Mulley turned to her experience with breast cancer. So were born several pieces of art that intimately convey what women think about and feel as they deal with the disease.
"(At one of my shows) a woman came up to me and she didn't say a word. She just hugged me and then told me her sister had just died of breast cancer."
Mulley, now 48, said she believes her battle with breast cancer has made her a better person.
The dream of her friend also made her trust in the existence of angels.
"I really believe I had a guardian angel watching out over me."
