It was a medical problem that first caused Denise to pick up guitar. Stricken with the paralyizing and potentially deadly Gillain Barre Syndrome at the age of 13, Denise used guitar as a form of re-hab. She battled back over a two-year period, re-learning the use of her limbs at an age when most girls were starting to date.

Denise's guitar playing evolved into a career singing, composing and performing Country music. The career took off in the latter half of the 90's and 2 CD's, numerous singles , videos and award nominations. Just when it looked like Denise had established herself as a Country artist with a natiional base, things took a horrifying turn for the worse. While performing in Alberta in the summer of 2001, Denise first exhibited the symptoms of what would turn out to be cancer. Worse than that, the form of cancer she suffered (leomyo sarcoma) had only been diagnosed 200 times and 97% of those cases proved fatal in the short term. Denise had a deadly tumor growing within her circulatory system and no Canadian had ever beaten this particular form of cancer.

The day of reckoning came on May 1, 2002 at Massachusetts General Hospital (one of only two facilities in the world that had ever successfully treated the disease afflicting Denise.) Surgery lasted 7 hours. The tumor had grown to within centimeters of causing heart failure... that's how close Denise came to dying.

Extensive chemotherapy (both before and after the surgery) took a terrible toll but killed the tumor. The physical suffering and the emotional strain is difficult to even imagine. However Denise Murray is a survivor. In fact anyone who knows Denise expects her to make it all the way back to the stage, the recording studio and the radio airwaves.