Boy, 6, with leukemia joins walkers on route

By Bill Kirk

Among last Saturday's participants in the Pierce County Great Walk for Life was a six-year-old leukemia patient.

Devon Murphy, the son of Scott and Yvette Murphy of Hager City, was too tired to go outdoors just two years ago because of his cancer, according to his mother. But he made the six-mile trek from the county fairgrounds in Ellsworth to the Harsdorf farm near Beldenville with her and several of her co-employees from Red Wing Shoe Company.

"I was looking for a group of kids who could talk (with him)," Mrs. Murphy said of her children-with-cancer support group idea a while ago.

She contacted the Pierce County Human Services Department, but officials there knew of no such group in this vicinity. Then, she read information in the newspaper from Donna Langer of Ellsworth, who's active with the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and thought to call her. Langer suggested the Great Walk, which raises funds for cancer research, patient services and educational programs of the American Cancer Society.

As of last week, Mrs. Murphy and six of her co-workers had raised $585 for their participation in the event and were trying for more, she said. The walkers seek pledges from others toward their effort. She believed the money generated for the Cancer Society's research could someday benefit her son.

The youngster was diagnosed with leukemia when he was four-years-old, his mother said. In October of 1997, his parents noticed he had some bruises. First, they saw one on his hip, then there were more the next day and even more the following day.

"We'd had some friends over and were wondering who was beating him up," she joked.

It was a weekend when they initially called a doctor, who advised they bring the boy for a checkup that Monday, considering he had no temperature nor pain, Mrs. Murphy said. But the same evening, he developed both a fever and pain in his left side, so they took him to the Red Wing hospital, from where he was transferred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

A spinal tap was done on the young patient, under anesthesia, she said. Diagnosed with leukemia, he began a three-year chemotherapy program. The first year, treatments were given weekly; now, they're administered once every 28 days.

"That first year was the roughest," his mother said. Sisters Kristen Anderson, 16, and Taryn Murphy, nine, helped his parents with his care.

Her son didn't want to go outdoors until forced to, she said. Not only was he constantly tired, but his medication made him sensitive to light. He'd go into her bedroom, close the door and the shades to be in the dark, she remembered. Eventually, the sensitivity ended.

Presently, he goes to Rochester for chemotherapy on two visits, plus a spinal tap on the third, she said. He's medicated to be groggy on these occasions so he'll forget the experience, she added. He no longer bruises unless his blood gets low, a condition he's continually being checked against.

Mrs. Murphy said she agreed with his doctor that Devon now looks very healthy. A preschooler when diagnosed, he'll enter first grade at Prairie View Elementary School this fall.