Bill and Amy O’Keefe
Bill O’Keefe is intimately familiar with the benefits of cancer research. O’Keefe has been a primary caregiver for two women battling cancer: His late wife, Margy, was treated for leukemia at VCU Massey Cancer Center. His second wife, Amy, is now being treated for leukemia at Massey, too.
After the appearance of a series of bruises on Margy’s arm in 2006, a referral to a hematologist and multiple biopsies, O’Keefe says, “We got frustrated not getting any answers.” What followed was a journey unlike any he had ever known.
First, it was getting the bad news about Margy’s health. A cancer diagnosis “hits you like a car or thunderbolt,” he says. “You never expect to hear anything like that.” The prognosis wasn’t good, and the survival rate for the type of blood cancer Margy had was low. The couple made regular trips to Johns Hopkins for treatment, but eventually, it made more sense to stay closer to home to be treated by the team at Massey.
“The treatment [at Massey] was outstanding,” O’Keefe says, and the leukemia was brought under control. Unfortunately, Margy’s immune system was already weakened, and she succumbed to a fatal lung infection.
The 14-month experience with Margy left Bill shaken but immensely grateful for the care and support of Massey Cancer Center. “It was the sense of confidence that she was being treated the best she could be treated. It gave me a sense of comfort,” he says.
October is usually the month when women’s health is a focus as survivors, activists, friends and family raise awareness about breast cancer. In Richmond, February brings its own brand of awareness as VCU’s Massey Cancer Center gears up for its 25th annual Women & Wellness event.
The Women & Wellness Forum Series began in 1996 to raise money to support women’s cancer research at Massey. Last year, the event raised about $225,000. This year the event is on track to raise substantially more, according to Molly Wright, Massey’s development communications manager.
“Donations don’t go to patient care directly, they go to research, and sometimes that research takes the form of clinical trials,” she explains. “Research can be so hard to understand, and [it may] take a long time to see the impact, but we are seeing the impact because people are getting treated.”
Dr. Mary Hackney, medical oncologist and director of quality control and safety in Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Care at Massey, echoes this point. “[The money raised] supports the scientists, it supports people who are generating new ideas, it’s supporting clinical trials,” she says.
She explains that clinical trials are critical to advances in cancer care and treatment. “I cook, so I think about everything in recipes,” she says. When it comes to cancer trials and research, “you have to have some regimentation. It’s more like baking. If you bake a cake, you have to measure the ingredients. With spaghetti, you can just throw it into the pot. When you treat cancer, you need to be precise.”
The research we invest in now pays off later. “I use drugs that we developed 25 years ago,” Hackney says.
Amy’s leukemia is now in remission.
O’Keefe remarried in 2014, and his wife, Amy, is undergoing her own battle with a different form of blood cancer. It’s an unusual position to be in, but he’s not particularly alarmed. “I don’t think you choose someone based on their health condition, you choose them for all the qualities that make them special,” he says.
Amy was also being treated at Johns Hopkins, but O’Keefe says she made the decision to get treated at VCU’s Massey Center, too. “The quality of care she receives [at Massey] is as good as it was in Johns Hopkins,” he says. “We think they’re top rate. They belong in the best cancer treatment institutions in the nation.” He says that while Amy will never be cured, she’ll be in remission.
Dr. Hackney says people sometimes think, “ ‘Well, I need to go to Hopkins or Sloan Kettering [for treatment].’ Many of the things they do there we can do right here.” Massey is one of only 71 National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers in the country and one of only two in Virginia, a designation recognizing facilities that meet rigorous standards for state-of-the-art research focused on preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer.
O’Keefe continues to be encouraged by the work Massey is doing, for his wife and for others. “They reach out to people in the community and invite them in to learn about what people are doing,” he says. In his own life, he says what keeps him grounded during these experiences as a caregiver is simple: “Love.”
“Each day you wake up, you say, ‘It’s another day.’ Be thankful for the blessings you have and not the difficulties.”
This year’s Women & Wellness event will be held Feb. 4 at The Jefferson Hotel. Deborah Norville, award-winning anchor of “Inside Edition” and a cancer survivor, will share her story during the program. Tickets are still available for the breakfast.
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