It’s one thing for a fictional character like Anita Williams Dupree (Tamara Tunie) to be stricken with cancer. It’s quite another for a real-life viewer to benefit from that story arc, but that’s what happened to a newsletter writer navigating her own wellness journey, thanks to the example set by “Beyond the Gates.”
On the daytime soap opera, Anita’s year started not with horns and streamers, but with a biopsy after her WinterFest assistant, Laura Peterson (Destiny Love), insisted that the matriarch stop putting off getting a mammogram. The scan tragically revealed that Anita had a malignant tumor growing inside her and led to some heart-tugging Fairmont Crest drama, which prompted Melissa Ryan, author of Ctrl Alt Right Delete, to take the show’s message seriously enough that it may have saved her life.
Through Anita’s struggle, the show urged women to get cancer screenings to stay on top of their own health, and like Anita, Ryan had put off such an evaluation… until the Dupree matriarch’s words rang through like The Articulettes’ vocals in a stadium. “Get your screenings, folks,” recommeded Ryan recommended to her readers in an off-topic post titled, “I Have Cancer.”
In the August 9 post, she said that the cancer she was diagnosed with was “fairly boring,” but because the grade one tumors were caught early, her care team was optimistic about her upcoming treatment plan. “The rest of my month is going to be spent in appointments and tests to help my care team determine a treatment,” she said at the time of her posting, sharing that she was overdue for a colonoscopy and held off on getting one since she had no family history of breast or ovarian cancer. Though she could have waited a few more years to schedule a mammogram, she ultimately decided to get both out of the way.
“If I’m being honest,” Ryan said, “[I did it] because there was a breast cancer plot on ‘Beyond the Gates’ that emphasized the importance of screenings. Still, I was a lot more worried about something showing up on the colonoscopy.”
As for “Beyond the Gates,” almost from the moment Anita’s doctors brought her in for a biopsy to verify or negate their suspicion of cancer, the soap made sure to give the viewers the facts while generating the drama. Anita immediately told her loved ones that she had triple-negative breast cancer, a variation that disproportionately affects younger women and Black women in general.
CBS
Another factor in the disorder is a mutation in the BRCA1 gene (Breast Cancer gene 1 — there are two variants), which prevents a woman’s body from producing proteins that repair damaged DNA and prevent uncontrolled cell growth. As this mutation can be passed down to subsequent generations, Anita had her daughters, Dani (Karla Mosley) and Nicole (Daphnée Duplaix), get tested for it; Nicole turned out negative, while Dani was ultimately proven to be a carrier, as was her own daughter, Naomi (Arielle Prepetit).
The show didn’t shy away from exposing viewers to the many phases of Anita’s chemotherapy, highlighting her loss of appetite and hair to the constant sickness and malaise. Anita even had a moment where the pain from an associated infection was so intense that she opted to sign a do-not-resuscitate order (DNR) until Vernon (Clifton Davis) and the others talked her out of it. While the fictional character is on the other side of it now, having undergone surgery to remove what was left of her tumor, not everyone with cancer meets that fate, sadly, but Anita’s overall grit and determination certainly sent viewers the message to hang on to hope, even when it seems there’s no reason to.
As for Ryan, she notes how fortunate she is to have adequate health insurance and a solid support network, stating, “When I’m undergoing treatment, I won’t be alone, and I’ll have all the support I need. Something I’m extremely grateful for. The support people have shown me already is incredible, and I love knowing that a village has my back.”
That said, vocationally, she has undergone some setbacks, and she’s concerned whether she’ll be able to continue working while undergoing treatments, asking those who are able and willing to donate to help support her work at Ctrl Alt Right Delete, which you can read more about here.
Anita Dupree On ‘CBS Mornings’
Michele Crowe/CBS
In a February episode of “Beyond the Gates,” Anita appeared on “CBS Mornings” for an interview with co-host Gayle King, where she disclosed to the world that just before Christmas, she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and told viewers at home, “We have to be diligent and do whatever it takes because cancer doesn’t wait for us to be ready. No. And it certainly doesn’t disappear if we try to hide from it.”
Check out a clip from her appearance below.
Breast Cancer Awareness
If you’ve been putting off your own mammogram, arrange to have one with your doctor today, or visit BreastCancer.org, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides guidance for women to access free or low-cost screenings in the absence of health insurance, or by calling (610) 642-6550.
In Canada, similar information is available on BreastCancer.ca or by calling (800) 567-8767.
