Fringe performer heals with humour after childhood cancer

Performer Stéphanie Morin-Robert is in the city for the Regina Fringe Festival. She's the entire creative force behind Blindside, which is a comedy piece inspired by life after childhood cancer.

"Over the years I've learned to become quite comfortable with the fact that I have a glass eye," she said. "It hasn't always been that easy," Morin-Robert said.

When she was two years old, she was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a cancer of the eye. She was born with the disease, but it wasn't caught until a routine eye examination.

"It was a normal eye doctor doing a normal checkup," she said. The checkup led to the diagnosis.

According to Morin-Robert, the rare cancer isn't detectable by blood work or scans at that age.

She's since learned that flash photography can lead to a diagnosis in children, because what would typically show as a red eye will appear white. Looking back on photos, she noticed her eye was indeed white.

"I always tell people take pictures of your kids."

The disease typically attacks the retina and then moves on to the brain, but after having her left eye removed she was okay. 

"I consider myself quite lucky," she said. 

Healing with Humour

The hour long Blindside performance revolves around her experience as a 7-year-old. She has used comedy to deal with her personal struggles.

"It made me realize that I am enough. That my stories are enough," she said.

All of the stories she shares are true and when she tells them she tries to keep it conversational.

"I like the audience to get a sense that we're like friends talking." 

"All of my friends were going to Disney World with the Make a Wish Foundation while I was not quite sick enough," she joked.

Eventually, she was granted a wish and rather than asking for a vacation she wished for a cat and named him Simba. The feline plays a large role in Blindside.

"I share both Simba and Is story of how he helped me as a young child," she said.

An eye for an eye in love

In one part of the performance, Morin-Robert takes the audience back in time to a camp in northern Ontario, she told CBC Radio's Morning Edition. 

A boy named Andrew asked her to meet behind the washrooms. Morin-Robert said he was the most handsome boy at camp. 

She recalled sprinting towards the destination, anticipating her first kiss. Then fear started to seep into her mind.

"I'm thinking: what if he notices my eye and no longer wants to kiss me?" 

It's a disability that I've learned to turn into a super power,-Morin-Robert

"He leans in closer and then takes his hand and takes it between our faces and brings it to his face and takes out his glass eye."

The little boy asked her to take out hers and they exchanged eyes.

For Morin-Robert, it was the most intimate moment she's ever had. 

She's come to terms with her glass eye, and said the thought of two makes her nauseous, but she used to struggle with whether or not she identified as being disabled.

The performer has since resolved that.

"It's a disability that I've learned to turn into a super power," she said. 

The Fringe Festival runs July 6 to 10.