Single Mom Told She Had 4 Months to Live — 7 Years Ago — Still Travels with Her Kids Thanks to New Trial Drug (Exclusive)

• When Desiree Dufour was told she had 4 months to live because of breast cancer, she decided, “That’s really not good enough for me.”
• She sought a drug trial in Boston, with the goal of having her son and daughter graduate from high school
• Now, 7 years later, she went on a trip with her daughter and met her grandson

When Desiree Dufour was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, she was told it was caught so early that it was stage zero.

The mother of two, then 35, had a lumpectomy, was dedicated to her follow-up examinations and thought everything was fine. Two years later, Dufour, a health care worker, was lifting a patient and, “I thought I just pulled a muscle, I had pain on my right side,” she told PEOPLE exclusively.

“I thought, it’s nothing,” she recalls. But when the pain persisted, she decided to go to the doctor. After a few tests – and then some more – she got some bad news.

Desire Dufour with her daughter Teagan.

Courtesy of Desiree Dufour

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“It was metastatic breast cancer,” she says, adding that the experts told her, “I have to make an appointment.”

The Wilton, Maine, resident said she was told she had 4 to 7 months to live and her only option was 4 to 5 rounds of chemotherapy. “I have two kids,” she said of Trey, then 13, and Teagan, then 8. “So I don’t think it’s really good enough for me.”

Dufour began researching trials and discovered one conducted by Dr. Dejan Jurić at Mass General Cancer Center. “When we first met, he asked me to set a goal, and I said, ‘Well, I want to see my kids graduate.’ And he said: ‘That’s a big goal.’ But I wasn’t going to settle for anything less.”

She started treatment, she said, “and now it’s been 7 years.” Teagan is 16 and Trey is 20 — and she has a grandson, Oliver, who is 1.

Desire Dufour with her grandson Oliver.

Courtesy of Desiree Dufour

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Dufour isn’t just living with cancer—it’s thriving. In December 2020, she went on a road trip with Teagan in an RV that she and her children renovated themselves. “We just made it more homey,” she said, adding that they painted it and added special touches to make it feel cozy.

“I’ve always wanted to travel, and then after two years of winter I decided we should do it – now is the time to travel,” she said.

The trip, she said, was “priceless”, and not only because of the kilometers traveled or the sights seen. It was about being with her daughter.

“For Teagan to support me and for me to come along to share that time with her,” — Dufour tells PEOPLE — “that was the whole thing for me.”

In addition to visiting family, they went to Hershey Park, Nashville and SeaWorld in Orlando. On a kayak trip in Florida, manatees swam under their boat. Dufour remembers seeing her daughter’s face “light up.”

“When I saw her face, the little things were even bigger,” she says.

Now her family is saving up for a bigger camper so her son, his girlfriend and grandson can join them on their next trip.

Desire Dufour in Nashville.

Courtesy of Desiree Dufour

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And she is committed to preserving her health.

The drug he is taking – Inavolisib with palbociclib and fulvestrant – has been approved by the FDA, meaning it will soon be available to other patients. “I don’t want people to give up. I’ve met a lot of people along the way who have been diagnosed and they just stop believing, like there’s no hope.”

She shared that her children are what keeps her going. “Just to see both of my kids — looking back from when they were born to now and how much they’ve grown. Everything you want them to come out with – and looking at it, looking into their eyes.”

“That’s what I got out of all this,” she says.

“I try to be here every day,” Dufour tells PEOPLE. “I will beat those odds. I already did.

She adds, “I feel like I’m going to live a long time.”

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