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Dakota Digest Sioux Falls TV Anchor Battles CancerAir Date: 10/13/2009
by Gary Ellenbolt

Years ago, a diagnosis of cancer almost always meant it was time to get one's affairs in order-about the only option for doctors was to try to make a patient comfortable in their final months. But treatments have improved, and many cancers are treatable and survivable. Viewers of one Sioux Falls television station are watching a young news anchor go through the disease-a very public battle she insists she will win, and statistics are with her. On today's Dakota Digest, South Dakota Public Broadcasting's Gary Ellenbolt brings you the fight of Danielle Dupuy.

It's 6 A.M., and K-D-L-T in Sioux Falls is starting its local morning news. The regular morning news anchor is missing - and won't be back for several months.

Danielle Dupuy is 24-years old - a native of California - and has cancer.

"I'm pretty open about it," Dupuy says, "and I feel like-especially if I'm not wearing a wig or something like that, if someone has a question to ask me, I'd rather you would ask instead of just look. And I actually feel better talking about it, because if I'm with someone who knows the situation, then I can be completely honest. And a lot of times I just try to be honest with the situation to begin with."

Danielle Dupuy has decided to take her fight public.Last month, Dupuy appeared on KDLT's evening newscast and discussed her cancer with anchors Tom Hanson and Jessica Hopkins. She's doing regular feature stories on what she's going through and how cancer is affecting her life. She has also started her own blog to write about what's happening.

Dupuy said, "So many people were asking me about it, and I thought this might be an easy way to answer those questions. Also, another part of me wanted to help other people, because when I found out, the first thing I did was go to the internet, and read about other people's experiences. And you can read about it in a textbook, but hearing people's personal experiences mean a lot more."

Danielle's goal in documenting her experience is to share her struggle-and get some things out in the open that may concern her, such as side effects of chemotherapy.

For Danielle Dupuy her journey with cancer began a few months ago. She went to her doctor for what she thought was a routine physical exam. So routine, in fact, she allowed a medical intern to look her over.

Dupuy recalls: "And we're doing the regular exam, and you know how the doctor always goes ‘Open up your mouth and say ‘ah,' and so I did that, and next thing I know her eyes just got huge and she said, ‘Oh my' and I'm thinking to myself ‘what, what's wrong? What is it?' and she says ‘Wait a minute, I've gotta see this better,' and so she's looking into my mouth and she says, ‘That is the biggest tonsil I have ever seen."

The discovery led to a biopsy, which led to a phone call Dupuy never expected. She said the nurse on the other end of the phone was very quiet-and that tipped her off that something was wrong.

"And she told me it was cancer," Dupuy said, "and it was more of a shock more than anything else. The first feeling I thought I had was ‘oh no I'm sick-or ‘what does this mean for my life. The first thought was ‘what needs to be done to fix it."

Danielle's cancer is Diffuse Large-B Cell Lymphoma. Doctor Kamran Dasabi is an oncologist in Sioux Falls.

Dasabi explained, "That's a sub-type of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma has about 40 sub-types. It has an incidence of 60 thousand a year in the US. Now of those 40 sub-types, the most common type is Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma, which occurs in about 40 percent of those 60 thousand people."

Darabi says this is an aggressive cancer, but it's highly curable. He says nearly 85 percent of those who are diagnosed with this type of cancer beat it. Dupuy says talking about her cancer is just as important a medicine as the chemotherapy she'll have infused into her body.

Jill Ireland is with the American Cancer Society in Sioux Falls. She says journaling and blogging about experiences is becomming more common as a means for survival.

Ireland said, "We're seeing for younger survivors who are used to accessing the internet, its instinctive for them to turn to social networking, or an online journal to cope-such as blogging, which can be helpful because it can allow others to be a part of their journey. And it's practical, because people can inform lots of individuals instantly, without having to repeat themselves with the same information."

One of the first people at KDLT to find out about Dupuy's illness was general manager Mari Ossenfort. Her large office features three televisions showing what's on competing stations in Sioux Falls. As the manager, she's sometimes called on to make difficult decisions, without a lot of emotion. But on the subject of Danielle Dupuy, Ossenfort lets her heart into the conversation.

"My heart broke for her," said Ossenfort, "and I thought ‘no 24-year-old should have to go through what she's going to go through."

Ossenfort was fine with allowing Dupuy to chronicle her condition and treatment-and she's making sure those who work with her take precautions for Danielle's sake. She admits, "I'm definitely worried about her catching a cold, catching the flu, anything like that. We're preaching ‘Wash your hands, wash your hands' all the time-and if you're sick, we don't want you coming to work."

Dupuy has decided to make her battle with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma a proactive one. When chemotherapy started, and her long hair began to fall out, she took the rest of it before the medicine did it for her.

As for that decision, Dupuy said "I felt like it was such a slow process; I almost just wanted it to all fall out at once, rather than seeing it on my pillow or clogging the drain in the shower, that was the hardest thing. So finally, I just went in, and once I started to see spots, and my part was enlarged, I just thought I'm done with seeing this all over the place-it would just be easier than to deal with that from day to day."

She wears a dark wig to work now-and most of the time, she wears a smile on the job. Danielle Dupuy is confident-really, certain-she will defeat the enemy.

Through her smile, Dupuy said "Come talk to me in a year, and I'll be cured. I won't have cancer anymore. And to be able to say that is a really great thing. So I feel like I'm blessed, almost, to be honest, to have this type, because it is so curable, and it's just a little part of my life and I can move on."

Dupuy will have six chemotherapy treatments and radiation as part of the treatment plan. The station will use other anchors in the morning until she's ready to come back to the early news show.