CHARLOTTE — Porscha Barry is a nurse with the cardiac critical care unit at Atrium Health. You’ll occasionally find her at the piano in the Levine Cancer Center, spreading a little joy as she faces her own battle with cancer.
Barry is currently undergoing chemotherapy. She was first diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2024. It was in remission, but then, she says it metastasized to her liver and pancreas.
“I was told there was no cure,” Barry told Channel 9’s Elsa Gillis. “It’s strange because when you work in nursing, you deal with death on a daily basis. You see it all the time, but I think that whenever they told me, that was the first time I felt like death was staring back at me.”
She’s now on a treatment plan. Her doctors are optimistic, and she is too.
“I think that the way you look at it is everything,” she said.
Barry says the experience has made her a better nurse.
“If there’s anything this experience has taught me is to remember every kindness,” she said. “Everybody remembers a slight or an offense, but how many of us can say we can count every kindness with just as much fervor?”
Barry credits her coworkers with helping her get through this time. They raised money so she could seek additional medical care in Houston, and they helped research the treatment plan she’s on now.
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