By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

A patient advocate in California who fought breast cancer and helped draw attention to the discrimination often faced by pain patients at pharmacies has died. April Doyle passed away last month after a 12-year battle with metastatic breast cancer. She was only 42-years old.    

In April 2019, Doyle posted a tearful video on Facebook and Twitter after a Rite Aid pharmacist refused to fill her prescription for Norco, an opioid medication she took for cancer pain. At the time, her Stage 4 breast cancer had metastasized into her lungs, spine and hip. 

“I have to take 20 pills a day just to stay alive,” Doyle said in the video, which soon went viral. “Every time I take my pain pill prescription there, they give me the runaround. They don’t have enough in stock or they need me to come back tomorrow because they can’t fill it today. Or something stupid. It’s always something and it’s always some stupid excuse.”

Doyle’s video struck a chord with pain patients around the country, who often have trouble getting their opioid prescriptions filled. The publicity also led to apologies from a Rite Aid vice-president, the store manager and the pharmacist who refused to fill her prescription.

Doyle said the pharmacist told her he was worried about being fined or even losing his job if he filled her prescription, even though cancer pain is exempt from opioid prescribing guidelines. 

“It’s astonishing the reaction it has gotten. I had no idea this was so common. It’s actually kind of sad how common it is,” Doyle told PNN at the time. “It really struck a nerve with what’s apparently a big problem.”

Doyle wrote several articles about breast cancer that were posted online and her own blog. In her final post on AdvancedBreastCancer.net, Doyle shared her feelings and worries about her young son while she was sick at home from chemotherapy.

“He’s such an amazing boy and it isn’t fair that he has to grow up with a sick mother. If I’m even around for much more of his growing up. In my heart, I know this is what I’m really mourning,” she wrote.

“Cancer is slowly taking things away from me. I hate, hate, that I can’t do something myself. The stubbornness in me is resisting yet it comes out a waterfall of tears. Something so mediocre or dumb to someone else, but it’s an example of what my life has become and how I no longer can dictate what I can or cannot do.”

“April was a dedicated advocate in the metastatic breast cancer community. She told her story with authenticity and inspired so many young women and men living with the disease. She had a way of bringing people together and supporting people in all stages of breast cancer,” Doyle’s obituary in the Visalia Times said.

“She never let her disease define her. She never backed down from adversity and always stood forefront. April fought the stigma and stood up for patient rights. She leaves a legacy in the breast cancer community that will inspire people forever.”

Doyle leaves behind her 9-year old son, Colin. Her family asks that donations in her honor be made to METAvivor, a non-profit that supports breast cancer research.