A Canadian teacher with Stage 4 breast cancer is hoping to make the best of the time she has left and see her favourite comedian host Saturday Night Live while she still can.
“My whole life, comedy has been really important to me, but then, especially during my diagnosis and these last two and a half years, I like to use humour to get through the hard times,” says Laura Murray, 36.
“I also like to watch comedy to take me away from the hard times. Being able to watch comedies and laugh, I feel like that’s the best thing that I can do in this situation.”
The elementary school teacher from Ottawa has been living with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer for the last two and a half years.
Murray says by the time doctors detected the cancer, it had already spread to her bones.
She has undergone chemotherapy, radiation and now a regimen of targeted therapy every three weeks.
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“My current regimen is working really well so far, which is amazing. I just got scans back, and they didn’t find any progression,” she says.
But with the cancer already at an advanced stage, there is only so much doctors can do.
Murray says the five-year survival rate for Stage 4 breast cancer is 22 per cent, and the median survival is three years; having been diagnosed two and a half years ago, she knows the time she has left is limited.
Not wanting to waste that time, she posted a video on TikTok and Instagram dressing up as her favourite Kristen Wiig SNL character, Target Lady.
“I’ve documented different points along the way, but I was most excited to get to the point where I could cosplay Kristen Wiig as Target Lady,” Murray says, referring to her hair growing back. “She has a bob that’s very recognizable, and she’s one of my favourite characters.
“It’s been about a year that I’ve been thinking about, ‘OK, I’m going to get to Target Lady stage, and that’s going to be exciting.’ So it does help me get through it.”
After reaching her hair goal, Murray says she also found out Wiig was set to host SNL in a few weeks on April 6, which encouraged her to post the video online in hopes of seeing her favourite comedian perform.
“Kristen Wiig only hosts every few years. So knowing that this could potentially be my only chance to see her, it would just mean the world to me to be able to make that come true,” she says.
Murray says doing this campaign to meet the SNL comedian has helped distract her from her situation.
“Time is limited, and I’m in a situation where I’m hyper-aware of that. There are lots of things that I know I won’t be able to do because of my diagnosis, but being able to focus on a goal that I can achieve really keeps me going and keeps me positive,” she says.
The elementary school teacher says that seeing family, friends and complete strangers share her video in hopes that it reaches the right people has also given her hope.
“It really makes me feel less alone in my diagnosis, which has been one of the hard parts of being diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer at a young age. You feel really alone, and then this has made me feel more connected to the community,” she says.
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