‘I intend to fight this’

Her doctor was on the other end. She had been waiting for the results of a biopsy on her breast and the news was not good. It was cancer, he told her. 

As many know, Foote, the Member of Parliament for Random-Burin-St. George’s, had been there before. She successfully battled breast cancer 14 years ago while serving as a provincial MHA for the District of Grand Bank.   

True to her nature, despite advice from the physician during the call, she pressed forward with the event.

“I keep telling people that it is my faith, it is my positive attitude and the incredible support of friends and family and supporters that will get me through this again,” she told The Southern Gazette Tuesday. “I’m a fighter, and I intend to fight this.”

COMPLICATIONS

Foote said the recent diagnosis was “eerily similar” to before. Back then, like this time, an initial mammogram failed to detect anything was wrong.

“All my instincts told me to go and insist on seeing a doctor and following up on it, and I did,” she said, noting the cancer was in her other breast this time.

Likewise, the procedures and treatment should have been the same, she said. Following surgery in March, however, there were some complications.

Because her breast cancer is triple-negative, Foote said chemotherapy is the only treatment option. During her first cancer battle, she was also treated with radiation. Surgery on radiated skin takes longer to heal.

“When your oncologist decides to give you chemotherapy, it’s usually done with the understanding that it won’t be administered until your surgery has healed 100 per cent,” Foote explained.

“Unfortunately, there was a bad judgment call made and I did have my chemotherapy before the surgery was completely healed, which resulted in complications on the left side where I had radiated tissue.”

Foote was in a hospital 11 days while antibiotics were administered intravenously.

After a two-week postponement, she completed her second chemo session Monday.

MOVING FORWARD

Foote said she has moved past the mistake and has faith in her medical team.

“People ask me how different it is from 14 years ago and it is different,” she acknowledged.

“I’m getting a different type of chemo, which is supposedly an improved chemo, but they also have more supportive drugs than they had 14 years ago. So the nausea and the sore mouth associated with it before, they now have drugs to help prevent that, which is really helpful,” she said.

“There’s noting to prevent you from losing your hair, unfortunately, with the treatments I’m having, the same as there wasn’t 14 years ago. So the loss of hair is there, but hair grows back. That’s not something that bothers me.”

Work, Foote said, helps take her mind off the battle, and while she has had to do her job from home for the most part, she has been able to make two trips to Parliament Hill.

The backing she has received from her colleagues in Ottawa, as well as the support from people in this province, has also been “incredible,” she said.

BE PERSISTENT

Foote suggested people often accept and find relief in a positive evaluation from a doctor even when they know that something feels wrong. She urged them to be persistent and leave no stone unturned.

“I keep telling people that it is my faith, it is my positive attitude and the incredible support of friends and family and supporters that will get me through this again.” Random-Burin-St. George’s MP Judy Foote

“It just goes to show that you have to take responsibility for your own health,” she said, “that you really do have to push and speak up and make sure you get the attention that you need to deal with whatever might be going on in your body.”

It was not a secret that Foote had been diagnosed with breast cancer again. She has made it known to her constituents through messages delivered by her assistants at public events in recent months. She also addressed her illness in her latest newsletter.

“It’s a very personal thing,” she said, “and people are so kind. They continue to reach out, as they did 14 years ago. You have to stay positive. You have to believe that you can fight this and survive this.”

Foote, who has two daughters and a son, said arrangements are being made for genetic testing.

“It’s a part of my life now that, I guess, consumes me somewhat because you never know what the future holds, but I don’t let it consume me to the point where I don’t continue to do what I want to do and what I have to do.”

Foote planning to continue political career

Liberal MP Judy Foote said she has every intention of seeking the nomination in the new riding of Bonavista-Burin-Trinity in next year’s federal election.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has committed to open nominations, which Foote said she supports.

Foote, who was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in 14 years back in February and is currently undergoing chemotherapy, said she is hopeful the illness will be behind her by then and believes she will be able to hit the campaign trail with the same level of enthusiasm and vigour as in the past.

Foote said she has relished her life as a public servant since serving as the director of communications for former-premier Clyde Wells in 1989.

Foote served as MHA for the District of Grand Bank from 1996 to 2007 and was elected as the Member of Parliament for Random-Burin-St. George’s in 2008.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, and you don’t give up something you enjoy if you have the opportunity to continue,” she told The Southern Gazette.

Foote said she is looking forward to running in the new federal riding, though there are some mixed emotions, she admitted, having made numerous intimate connections in many of the some 180 communities that comprise Random-Burin-St. George’s.

Foote indicated Bonavista-Burin-Trinity will have about 7,000 more constituents.

“Of course, when I was in provincial politics, I spent a lot of time throughout the province, so it’s not foreign territory for me at all,” she said.

“I know a lot of people in the area and I look forward to representing them if given the opportunity to do so, just as I have represented the people of Random-Burin-St. George’s.”