Digital subscriptions provided by the City of Gulfport THE GABBER.COM No. 2811
May 4, 2023- May 10, 2023
The Cost of Cancer Fourteen years into her Gulfport life – a perfectly Gulfport existence, rich with art, neighborly deeds, and a splash of the wonderfully weird – Denise Keegan O’Hara faces an enormous, life-altering challenge. This January, she was diagnosed with stage IV throat cancer. This means seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy, of treating her skin and gums to mitigate their ferocious side effects. It means a constant battle to stay hydrated, and longing for the day when she can eat something other than broth or Jell-O. It means she can’t get to her job as a server at the Comfort Café or keep up with her art. Then there’s the cost. Aside from the lost income, O’Hara faces mounting medical expenses. She easily hit her deductible of $8,400 in the early stages of her treatment, and the co-payments for her medications can run up to $600. All of this is with a catastrophic health plan – if she had basic insurance, the costs would be even higher. Cancer is expensive. And worst of all, despite everything she is doing to fight the disease, the prognosis is uncertain.
ROBYNNE SWANSON
By Amanda Hagood
As this Gulfport artist fights cancer, she shares her struggles, her hopes, and her love for the community that’s rallied behind her.
“After all this, then what?” she says, a rueful smile glittering in her eyes. “Either it’s done, or I’m dead.” But that ghost of a smile says a lot. As her friend Monika Taylor remarked on the GoFundMe page she established to help friends and neighbors supplement Denise’s lost income, “She is a real tough cookie.”
Tossed and Found When she moved here from Melbourne, Florida, more than a decade ago, O’Hara found a community where she could grow artistically. “Gulfport really expanded my art,” she explains. As a self-described
Cancer continued on page 9
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