Cancer and Covid
- Riverdance's longest-serving member is crediting the Covid-19 pandemic for allowing his doctors to find his cancer early as the 32-year-old recently made his long-awaited return to the stage.
- World Irish Dancing champion Darren Casey, 32, says that if it wasn't for the pandemic closing venues, and subsequently sending him home, he wouldn't have received his cancer diagnosis.
- Casey made his emotional return to the Riverdance stage in August. The 25th anniversary production will return to the states in early 2022.
The 25th anniversary production of Riverdance, a theatrical show consisting mainly of traditional Irish music and dance, was brought to a halt, just days after its opening in New York City's famous Radio City Music Hall in March 2020. (The show opened on March 10, 2020, but two days later, all theaters in the Big Apple closed because of the pandemic.)
Read MoreRiverdance’s Casey's Cancer Diagnosis
Casey says that in the months leading up to the 25th anniversary production, "I was getting sick quite a lot with chest infections and this and that, but I put it down to burning the candle at both ends while touring in the U.S. and Canada," Casey says. "We worked hard, but we played hard as well." When Casey and his fellow dancers were sent home, he sought medical attention for his persistent chest infections. The tests his general practitioner ran discovered pneumonia, "which had been sitting on my chest for a while," he adds. "Further tests found specks of cancer surrounding my lung, and I had a cancerous skin condition as well."Because of the Covid restrictions in place around the world, Casey tells of how he had to go to all of his doctor's appointments alone. "I remember sitting in Beaumont Hospital (in the United Kingdom) one day and I was sitting by myself across from the oncologist who told me I had to do chemotherapy," Casey says. "I thought he had the wrong person. It didn't register that it was me he was talking about. My mom had cancer, so there were a lot of thoughts and emotions running through my head, and I was thinking the worst."
"I was completely devastated and didn't see the light for about three days," he adds. "I just didn't see a way out."
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But those feelings of devastation and loneliness were a thing of the past when Casey made his emotional return to the Riverdance stage in August when the rescheduled tour kicked off in the U.K. The 25th anniversary production will finally come back to the states in early 2022. "On my first day back, I was on stage crying and trying to smile through the tears. It was so emotional to be back where I belong," Casey says.
Casey's return to the performing stage wasn't without a fight, however. "I had six months of chemo and my weight ballooned," he says, "but thankfully, I came out the other side clear of cancer."
"I never thought I would ever dance again and that was one of the hardest things for me through all of this," he adds. "Everyone in Riverdance was so supportive to me through it all, and I never thought I was going to talk to them again on a work basis."
Casey's last chemo treatment was in March, so he had some time to recover before his big comeback.
"I never thought I would put on a pair of dancing shoes again, let alone get back on tour with Riverdance, but in recovery, I decided I wasn't going to lie down and die in terms of my career," he says.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't thank everyone on earth and in heaven that I am where I am," he adds.
Cancer and Covid
Immunocompromised people, such as those who have or have had cancer, are more susceptible to Covid. As a cancer patient or survivor, how can you protect yourself from this virus that's still mutating and infecting thousands every day?
Here's the most important thing: If you haven't already, get your Covid shot. (And before you ask, yes, all Covid vaccines are safe for cancer patients and survivors.) If you have received your shot, make sure you get your booster shot.
According to Dr. Nina Shah, a hematologist at the University of California San Francisco, it's critical that cancer patients going through active treatment get this booster. "It's very important (to get your booster shot), since we know some cancer patients do not mount a sufficient immune response after the first series of shots," Dr. Shah tells SurvivorNet.
Cancer Patients & COVID-19 When to Stay Home and When to Go in to Your Doctor
If you're hesitant about the vaccine, recent findings presented at the annual European Society for Medical Oncology conference, or ESMO Congress 2021, the leading professional society for medical oncology, revealed through multiple studies that cancer patients have "an appropriate, protective immune response to vaccination without experiencing any more side-effects than the general population."
The findings discussed at the conference "offer conclusive evidence that while being largely effective, anti-COVID vaccination is just as safe for people with cancer as it is for the general population," according to Dr. Luis Castelo-Branco, a medical oncologist in the ESMO Scientific and Medical Division.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.