TERRE HAUTE —
Diagnosed with a death sentence in 2002, doctors advised Denise Story to get her affairs in order as she had less than a year to live.
But that was then, this is now, and Story’s decadelong fight with cancer has been anything but a defeat. Now in her 40s, she lives every day in defiance of the odds.
“I had a reason to live,” the mother of two said Saturday morning in her home, holding pictures of her sons 10 years after learning she had colon cancer.
Story was a young mother in her 30s that June when doctors discovered a 31⁄2 inch mass wrapped around her colon. Given its advanced stage, there wasn’t much hope heard in discussions with the medical community, she said.
Friend Stacey Thompson-Dorman recalled going to the doctor’s office with her throughout the early stages of diagnosis and treatment. Their shared faith in God was a source of sustenance, and one upon which they drew heavily.
“There was still a fear of the unknown,” Thompson-Dorman recalled. “Her true faith in God is what kept her going all these years.”
Nine surgeries, 163 chemotherapy treatments, and two rounds of radiation all merged around extended hospital stays and pain, but the desire to see her sons grow up was the motivation she attributed to saving her life.
“My dad died at a very young age,” she said, explaining how his death at 51 impacted her and her brothers. Ensuring that kind of pain wasn’t experienced by her own young children was paramount to her.
Then 9 and 6, Andrew and Austin were baseball players in the Clay Youth League. And though sick from chemotherapy and too sore to sit long, she recalled how attending those games kept her going.
Austin, now a 16-year-old Northview High School junior, noted he was too young to fully understand what was occurring at the time, but over the years, his mother’s dedication has rung home.
“I’m grateful,” he said of her attendance amid the circumstances.
Andrew, now a 19-year-old Ivy Tech student, said as a 9-year-old, the concept of cancer is tough to grasp.
“At 9 years old, you don’t know. I don’t think any 9-year-old can understand when someone tells you your mom only has one year to live,” he said Saturday. “It’s been a long road for her. We’re all proud of her for fighting as hard as she did.”
Dawn Clinkenbeard remarked at the ongoing effect Story’s fight has had on others around her. Ten years ago, Clinkenbeard first met Story while working for the American Cancer Society, coordinating Relay for Life events. A volunteer from the start, she said the young mother was among the first in line to help, even though most thought she wouldn’t live long enough to follow through.
“It was just such a heart-wrenching story at the time,” she said, recalling how Story was trying to prepare her sons and family for the possibility of her own death. “She’s just a miracle.”
The two became friends, and Clinkenbeard credited experiences with survivors like Story as part of the reason she decided to return to school and become a nurse. In December she expects to graduate from Ivy Tech Community College as a registered nurse.
“Certainly working with patients like her over the years has shown me how important it is to have good nursing care,” she said.
Beth D’Amico still marvels at the strength required for a mother to tell her children she might not live another year.
“She is an amazing mother,” she said, thinking back. “It was awful. I truly didn’t think she was going to make it, but you always try to stay positive and hope for the best.”
In Story’s home, above a glass case full of carved angels, are painted the words “Every day holds the possibility for a miracle.”
Crediting her friends for their support, and her children as inspiration, Story said the ongoing battle with cancer is going as well as can be expected.
“This will be the first year, knock on wood, with no surgeries,” she said, emphasizing that despite an initial diagnosis, cancer victims have a chance if they have the will to fight. “It’s been a long, long journey.”
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
Local & Bistate
Related Photos
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Buds: Stacey Thompson-Dorman (left) visits her best friend Denise Story Saturday afternoon at Story's eastside home.
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Foursome: Denise Story (center) holds her family dog and is flanked by her 16-year-old son Austin and her best friend Stacey Thompson-Dorman Saturday morning at their eastside home.
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Tribune-Star file/Jim Avelis Long ago: Denise Butts with her sons Andrew and Austin in 2004.
Discussion
Reason to live: Denise Story was given a year to live … 10 years ago
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