Peabody resident Donna Ramos lost two unborn babies and had three bouts with breast cancer after serving at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina as a Marine.
The cause: contaminated tap water used in everyday life at the camp between 1953 and 1987.
“It has been 43 years since Camp Lejeune. Thirty-seven since my first pregnancy,” Ramos said at the Memorial Day Ceremony on the lawn of City Hall Monday. “I don’t want to spend my life being angry or living as a victim, although I know I am both.”
Ramos spoke just before 25 Peabody veterans were posthumously honored with the Massachusetts Medal of Fidelity.
The honor is given to the families of Massachusetts service members or veterans who died of PTSD, brain injuries or exposure to harmful toxins, herbicides and other agents, like Agent Orange, while serving in the armed forces or National Guard.
“Some paid all at once and others paid over a lifetime,” said Robert Dunne, commander of the Peabody Veterans’ Council.
That’s been the case for Ramos.
She enlisted as a reservist in the Marines after graduating from Salem High School and trained as a driving mechanic at Camp Lejeune, unaware that the camp’s drinking water contained toxic chemicals.
That exposure became worse when she began working in the camp’s kitchen, washing pots, pans, tables and chairs by hand.
“The days were long and the temperatures were hot,” Ramos told the crowd of roughly 200 people Monday. “I saw being able to drink ice water all day as a perk. In 1981, I went home not realizing that my life had been forever changed.”
Ramos married in 1983 and got pregnant for the first time in 1987. At the five-month mark, right after she first started to feel flutters from the baby, an ultrasound showed extensive birth defects and she had to terminate the pregnancy.
“My vision for my life entailed two to four children, a part-time job that worked best with my husband’s schedule in a simple, happy and loving home and family,” Ramos said.
She tried again to have a child in 2003, but miscarried. Four months later, she was diagnosed with stage-one breast cancer.
Ramos underwent radiation and a lumpectomy, but was diagnosed again in 2007 and 2009. She had aggressive chemotherapy treatments, received second and third degree burns from radiation in her chest wall and took the breast cancer treatment drug tamoxifen for 10 years.
Ramos would never have children, and lost both of her breasts earlier this year after her reconstructive implants ruptured.
“I’m only speaking today to somehow stand up for all of you and for all of those who are not physically here,” she said to the families of those being honored with the Medal of Fidelity.
Her story, tragically, is not unique.
The Center for Disease Control estimates between 500,000 and 1 million people were exposed to cancer-causing chemicals in the water at Camp Lejeune from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. The water has also been linked to higher rates of Parkinson’s disease among service members who were at Camp Lejeune compared to those at other bases.
Since President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act in 2022, making it legal for those exposed to the toxic water at the camp to sue the government, tens of thousands of lawsuits have been filed by veterans, their families and former workers at the camp.
Victims have until Aug. 10, 2024, to file these claims.
The act also expands VA benefits for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals like Agent Orange and the burn pits of the Vietnam War.
Of the 25 Peabody veterans honored with the Medal of Fidelity Monday, 20 died from illnesses linked to Agent Orange exposure. The other five deaths were linked to PTSD, Camp Lejeune water exposure, radiation exposure and the burn pits.
The Medals of Fidelity were presented to the spouses, children and other family members of the recipients Monday by Mayor Ted Bettencourt and guest speaker Air Force Major General Virginia I. Gaglio.
“They too have served our country with strength, resilience and unwavering support,” she said of the families. “They have endured the pain of separation, the anxiety of deployment and the grief of loss and yet have remained steadfast in their commitment to our nation’s and its values.”
As for Ramos, she hopes her story will be one of strength.
“If I could leave you with one message, it is to focus on what is good in every moment of every day,” she said. “We cannot deny what has or may happen, but we shouldn’t let it rob us of the moments we treasure.”
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com.