Documentary of P.E.I. triathlete, cancer survivor sees successful premiere

A documentary titled The Journey Home premiered in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and online on Saturday, and it tells the inspirational story of a triathlete named Michelle Hughes. After a cancer diagnosis, Hughes was originally given three to five years to live, and the film follows her as she tackles a half-iron distance solo triathlon and stands strong in the face of those odds exactly three years to the day that she received that awful news.

A life-changing diagnosis

On Aug. 20, 2021, Hughes was told that she had Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma (EHE), an extremely rare sarcoma that has an occurrence rate of less than one in one million patients. It is so rare, in fact, that her doctor couldn’t pronounce the name of the cancer. Shortly after receiving that news and undergoing more tests, doctors told Hughes that she likely only had three to five years left. This was of course shocking, life-shattering information, but Hughes sought out a second opinion.

Hughes and her husband met with a sarcoma oncologist who was much more familiar with EHE than her other doctors. This oncologist told Hughes that while EHE can be an aggressive form of cancer and there is no known cure (or even a standard treatment protocol) for it, it doesn’t necessarily mean patients can’t live long lives. The doctor told Hughes that EHE can remain dormant in patients for years without severely impacting them.

This news didn’t fix all of Hughes’s problems or worries, but it did give her a new perspective on her situation. The sarcoma specialist told Hughes and her husband to “just live” as they waited to see how things developed, and this became the new slogan of Hughes’s life.

 

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A post shared by Michelle Hughes | Incurable Cancer Thriver (@myjourneytojustlive)

Just living

In her efforts to “just live,” Hughes decided to take on a big challenge. She wanted to show her children (she has two daughters and a son) that cancer didn’t define her. So, she picked triathlon—an interesting choice considering she couldn’t swim or ride a bike and was still new to running, but that made the challenge all more appealing. She then planned her race—an event she would complete on the three-year anniversary of her diagnosis—and the route, which started at the hospital where she was first diagnosed and ended at her home with her family.

The event saw Hughes run 22 kilometres, bike 104 kilometres and finally swim two kilometres in the ocean. Hughes’s husband, Ty, supported her throughout the journey—making sure she was hydrated, that she had enough nutrition and that she was safe on-route—and a friend of theirs tagged along to film the effort. Hughes had invited this friend, Lance Phillips, to simply record some of the run, ride and swim for fun, but he took the footage and turned it into a full documentary.

With that, Phillips and Hughes presented her inspiring story to the world. The Journey Home is available on Hughes’s website.