Darcel Fahy was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer in 2010. She was young, just a few years out of high school. With her diagnosis, her doctor gave her odds just under 40 percent of making it five years. But she chased heroic measures and squeezed 7 and a half years out of that before she passed away at home in 2017.
“I always feel one of the big injustices was that I knew her longer with cancer than without it, you know, and that’s a shame,” said Mike Fahy, Darcel’s husband. They married just two years before her diagnosis.
Mike was at Darcel’s side as she pursued aggressive treatment, including a medical trial of a new chemotherapy protocol at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
“It was pretty tough on her physically, but she always found a will and a way to do it. She never complained, no matter what, no matter what they threw at her, she didn’t complain,” said Mike.
Due to that trial and Darcel, that protocol has become the standard of care for ovarian cancer care at Magee. It has helped other women live past their odds as she did. And Mike chose to honor her by helping those women in another way.
With the help of his former place of work, Whitehouse Brewery, Mike raised $30,000 by selling a signature beer brewed in Darcel’s honor. They donated the proceeds to ovarian cancer research at Magee, the same research that helped her.
“It’s monies like these that allow us to do that initial work that engages the interest of the funder, and without these funds, we wouldn’t have successful grants,” said Dr. Robert Edwards, OB/GYN Chair at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital. This way, the money donated in Darcel’s name can generate much more money, extending the reach of her memory to potentially thousands of patients.
Source: CBS Pittsburgh