Breast Cancer Drive Nets Record Total for Music Showcase, Survivor

Debbie Morey has more than 2,000 reasons to thank the community for its support in her battle against breast cancer. On Nov. 9, Morey reportedly will receive a check for $2,106 from Music Showcase, which last month raised funds to give to a selected breast cancer survivor.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Music Showcase raised the funds by selling pink ribbons, cookies, cupcakes, and pens. Music Showcase also held a kids fall festival and, later that night, a Halloween party for adults in costume. 

Debbie Morey was in costume with her husband, Jim, at the party Oct. 20, held after her chemotherapy and days before her scheduled surgery. At the time Music Showcase had raised just under $1,300, which is the total raised last year for Shelley Ellis, now a breast cancer survivor, who also was at the costume party.

The total this year has risen substantially, which is great news for Morey, who vowed that she will beat her disease because her family, including a child in remission from leukemia and a child with Down syndrome, need her. As she put: "I just can't be sick."

Morey said the money comes at a great time because it coincides with the new year for her health insurance coverage, which carries a $1,000 deductible. Other expenses, she said, included gas for multiple trips back and forth to medical offices.

"We didn't think we would go through that much [money]," she said.

Music Showcase in September sought nominations of local women with breast cancer undergoing treatment to receive the collected donations. Morey's story, on a nomination form, was submitted by her friend Nikole Whitehead, who noted Morey's "treatment with an experimental drug for stage 4 breast cancer." Before her diagnosis, Morey's 5-year-old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia and now is now remission. Morey has two other children. One serves in the U.S. Navy and the other has Down syndrome and needs 24-hour care at home.

"They're an amazing family, they're certainly worth the reward, they've been through so much," Whitehead said. "We both have children with special needs. I was a volunteer advocate and I helped her family with issues her son had and we just became friends."

In the company of friends, in the Music Showcase theater Oct. 20, Morey said she was overwhelmed by the largesse of the Greater Brandon community.

How does it feel?

"It feels like a big hug," Morey said.

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Why It's Important To Self-Examine In The Fight Against Breast Cancer

Breats cancer fighter Debbie Morey said it was "unbelievable," her diagnosis with the disease.

"I felt [the lump] in the shower, but I didn't feel it the day before," she said. "It was huge. For it to have grown so fast [surprised me]. I hadn't kept up with my mammograms."

Now, that is the message she is spreading to anyone who will listen: Get your mammograms, don't be lax.

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For information about Music Showcase, and its events, call 813-685-5998 or email debbie@musicshowcaseonline.com.