NORTH AUGUSTA — In January, Michelle Derrick could barely maneuver from her living room couch to the kitchen as she battled the side effects of excruciating pain and exhaustion from chemotherapy.
A couple of months later with chemotherapy now in her rearview mirror and cardiac rehab underway, Derrick is rejuvenated and excited for what lies ahead.
“I’m taking my life back,” she said.
Not only does she have plans for her health, but she’s got more ideas floating around about how to use her animal rescue farm, Hope for Hooves Rescue, to help others.
Derrick is no stranger to cancer. While the “c” word strikes fear into the hearts of many people, Derrick plainly says she’s not afraid of the disease. This most recent round of treatment was in response to her fourth cancer diagnosis. She was first diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer in 2013.
Thirteen years ago, she underwent a mastectomy and reconstruction with some added complications. She was cancer free until 2018 when it returned and brought with it a grim diagnosis. Doctors said the cancer had spread into her bones and offered her no hope with little time left to live.
It was during that dark time in her life that she found comfort and emotional healing through animals including a donkey named Cora.
When she first met the donkey who was living on another farm at the time, Derrick knew that she needed to adopt Cora, but she didn’t have a place for the donkey to live at her home. Cora knew it too. She tried to go home with Derrick, following her vehicle as she left the property, breaking Derrick’s heart in the process.
It wasn’t long before Derrick’s husband made an enclosure for the animal and Derrick brought Cora home. Since then, the family has moved to a 10-acre farm with a barn in Edgefield County.
Cora and Derrick created a special bond as Derrick spent time with the animal on evenings in the barn. One night when the gravity of the diagnosis weighed heavy on Derrick, she placed her head in her hands and sobbed. Cora nuzzled close to comfort and forced Derrick look at her. Derrick couldn’t explain it, but as she gazed in Cora’s eyes, she felt Cora saying everything was going to be o.k.
Derrick went through an experimental treatment and said she believes God gave her a miracle when the disease retreated. Eight years later, she’s still alive and kicking.
Last year, doctors found cancer in her left breast. It was a different type of cancer – HER2-negative with a totally opposite treatment required than previous diagnoses.
Before the discovery, she had felt something might be off. She immediately she called her doctor instead of waiting for her next scheduled appointment. He insisted on an MRI and found the cancer.
“I would’ve never known. There was no lump,” she said.
The chemotherapy was brutal toward the end with excruciating pain radiating from her hips to the tops of her knees, making movement difficult. She stayed inside for several weeks, but now, Derrick said it’s hard to believe she went through it.
Again, Cora was right. Everything was o.k. in 2018, and Derrick feels everything is o.k. in 2026.
Derrick isn’t shy about sharing her story, and people often draw hope from it. She recently had a friend diagnosed with breast cancer, and the friend shared she wasn’t afraid of the disease because she’d seen Derrick go through it.
With Cora’s adoption, Derrick felt strongly to start an animal rescue called Hope for Hooves, which opened in October 2020. She initially took in horses, donkeys and ponies, but a sheep, goats, chickens, a hog and ducks are part of the menagerie currently living on the property.
Sitting on her front porch in the early morning hours, praying and listening to the rooster crowing, the donkeys braying, the sheep baaing, the birds singing, and the horses neighing is a chorus touching her soul like nothing else does, she said.
“That is my therapy. That’s my peace,” said Derrick who also credits God for her healing and peace.
Over the past five-plus years, the organization has evolved and offered different types of programming, but the goal has always been to give people a sense of healing that nature through the peaceful surroundings of the farm and some of the gentle animals can bring.
Derrick isn’t a therapist and doesn’t provide therapy, but people, especially children who’ve been abused, come to the farm and through interacting with the animals, they often find a sense of peace they haven’t known, she said.
And the animals, some of whom have been abused or neglected, often find their own peace as well.
Derrick has one mare named Grace who doesn’t like to be bothered by adults, but if a child comes around, it’s a different story. In one of Hope for Hooves programs, children read books to the animals.
Derrick recalls a child reading to Grace who hung her head over the stall to be closer to the child and fell asleep.
Because of liability concerns, horseback riding isn’t an activity at Hope for Hooves Rescue, but there are other ways children and adults can interact with the animals, such as painting the ponies and learning horsemanship.
She offers barn tours and summer camp programs.
In the fall, she hopes to offer a program for heroes – veterans and first responders – so they can interact with healing horses too and experience the animal bonding.
Hope for Hooves Rescue’s website is currently under construction, but more information is available onFacebook.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named Augusta Magazine’s best local writer in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
