Heather Appleton just renewed her passport for another ten years.
“I’m not checking out yet,” said Appleton, 61, who has the incurable cancer, Multiple Myeloma.
Appleton was diagnosed eight years ago after getting injured while playing in a slo-pitch game in Dorchester.
“I felt this pop in my back and I had actually fractured my spine because there was a tumor,” said Appleton, who didn’t even find out until months later.
“I thought it was just muscle pain. I travelled to Ireland to my daughter’s wedding, and I didn’t find out the severity until I went to physiotherapy, acupuncture and my family doctor. I could hardly walk with the pain, it was so bad.”
She went into urgent care, had imaging done and found the tumor. It was emergency surgery then chemotherapy.
“It’s incurable, but it’s treatable,” she said.
“It has been a roller coaster. I can’t lie.”
Heather Appleton, a Multiple Myeloma survivor, speaks at the Walk of Champions in Dorchester, Ont. on Sept. 8, …