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MARTHA'S LAST MILE
ESCAMBIA COUNTY - Martha Russell continues to share her end of life journey with us on Martha's Last Mile.
Russell is a Stage Four breast cancer patient who has also battled another illness in her life.
Russell was diagnosed with Bi-Polar Two disorder in 1998.
Channel Three's Kathryn Daniel has more in this morning's segment.
This is a story about friendship.
About a woman who wouldn't give up...
((Kay Goodman; There was no way that I was gonna leave her alone, "I feared for her life. I was afraid that she would commit suicide."
Who was also right...
Martha Russell; "I began the steps to get my life in order to kill myself."
One night it came to a head...Kay begged Martha to accept help.
Martha Russell; "That's the reason I went home with her was because I knew she needed me not to die."
Eleven years ago Martha had a complete mental breakdown.
Martha Russell; "I couldn't take a fork and a knife and cut up my own food."
A psychiatrist diagnosed her with Bi Polar Two Disorder -- and gave little hope for recovery.
Kay Goodman; "He looked at me and said, "Do you have any children?" and I said, "No." And he said, well, you do now."))
Martha Russell; "I'd kinda be sliding into a clear moment and I'd say, what if I get stuck like this? What if I don't get any better?"
Kay would not accept that.
((Kay Goodman; "Martha was in there, she was in there."))
Kay began a two year quest to bring Martha back. She moved Martha into her home...Ran her business...Took her to doctor appointments, kept meticulous notes on her many medications.
Every day she insisted on Martha getting two things...Exercise and sunshine.
((Kay Goodman; "I knew that she really wanted help and so it was really easy in that respect to keep pressing on."))
Slowly Martha did recover emotionally...But spiritually it was a struggle.
((Martha Russell; "At that time, I was an ordained minister and the church really did not recognize it back at that time if you were in church and you admitted depression, then you weren't praying enough."))
So she wrote a book about being a minister and a missionary with mental illness...
(("The doctor has a look of compassion."))
((Kay Goodman; "I love the title of the book, "Restore My Soul." It's true that God has restored her and we're just looking for the miracle again."))
Amazingly -- being told she had terminal cancer has not slid Martha back into a crippling depression.
She says as long as she manages her pain correctly and keeps her meds on track, she does well emotionally and mentally...
((Martha Russell; "The amount of depression I deal with probably ain't near as much as a lot of people do, because I have dealt with such depression, this ain't nothing honey."))
Kathryn Daniel, Channel Three News.>>
