Months after mammogram, former DHS coach discovers she has breast cancer

Denise Keller was climbing waterfalls and traversing sky bridges when she discovered a lump in her breast that would drastically change her life.

Keller, 48, had an active life, and was formerly the volleyball coach for Destrehan High School. When she first detected a lump in her breast during a May 2013 trip to Costa Rica, neither she nor her doctor were immediately worried. Keller had received a mammogram only a few months prior that found nothing.

However, she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer that August.

Over a year after her diagnosis, Keller said she is incapacitated. The treatments, she said, have given her neuropathy, a condition where feeling is lost in the legs and arms. In spite of this, Keller attempted to continue moving about her daily life, which resulted in her breaking her foot. Today, she requires a walker to move about.

Keller’s breast cancer is now in stage four. She said doctors have told her that 80 percent of people with this level of breast cancer do not live beyond five years.

Now on her 16th round of chemotherapy, she said that treatments this year have amounted to more than $100,000, with $20,000 of that coming out-of-pocket. Keller said she expects her treatments to continue into next year.

This is the fourth type of chemotherapy she has received.

“Basically what they tell me is that if one [type of chemotherapy] doesn’t work, they go to the next one,” Keller said. “That doesn’t look too promising to me, but I’m not giving up.”

Keller said the co-pay resets this January.

Keller served as the coach of the Destrehan High School volleyball team for the years prior to her diagnosis. In 2008, Keller led the Ladycats to a 12-9 season, making them first in the district. Keller’s daughter, Alexis, played for the team that year as a junior.

The younger Keller, now an English teacher at Destrehan, has since taken the reigns of the team from her mother. She said that volleyball was always a part of her life and that she expected to be an assistant coach for a while.

“I knew that one day my mom would eventually step down and I might take over, but not as quickly as it happened,” she said.

The UNO women’s volleyball team recently held a fundraiser Oct. 25 to help Keller.

Keller said that her mother and father-in-law have also set up an account with Capital One bank, called the Denise Keller Donation, where those interested in helping the family can donate. Donations can be made through any Capital One branch.