Female boxer faces fight of her life

It all led her to the same crossroads that the paralyzed boxer in “Million Dollar Baby” came to.

Phillips: “Do you think you were serious about taking your own life?”

Katie Dallam: “You know I don't know. But my body was in horrible pain. You know I had these horrible, horrible headaches. Everything, and my sister could tell you, I mean she had to put me in rehab for everything.“

Though Katie doesn't remember it, Stephanie says her sister actually had a plan to take her life. It was

foiled because Katie's brain injury left her incapable of telling a lie. So she revealed her plan to a social worker.

Stephanie Dallam: “And Katie's like, oh yeah. I'm planning to kill myself, yes. And told that how she was going to do it. “

Phillips: “Which was?”

Stephanie Dallam: “Oh, she was going to take her-- she had her on meds. And she didn't even know what her meds were. But she knew that if she took at lot of them, you know, that might do her in.”

But with support from her family, Katie worked through her despair. She began adjusting to a life of disability. Almost nine years later, she still struggles with her balance, concentration and speech.  Even the simplest of words can escape her. 

But Katie's clear now about her reasons for living. She has never forgotten her mother's words in that vision that came to her in the hospital, that it wasn't her time to die. And there's something else -- perhaps more than anything, Katie now lives for her art.

Katie Dallam: “With the art, I think it's the only place I feel real, I guess, is the word I'm looking for. I feel like myself when I'm doing my art work. In any other setting I feel sort of not here kind of. If that makes any sense.”

But there's one more element to Katie's comeback. The memories of that awful night remained tucked away in the pages of a dusty scrapbook -- until earlier this year, when she and her sister spent a night at the movies.

Katie says watching “Million Dollar Baby” was like a gift. Though her own story diverged in many ways,  seeing a tragedy in the ring and realizing it wasn't the fighter's fault helped Katie throw in the towel on blaming herself.

Katie Dallam: “When I'm feeling like I can't function, you know, I beat myself up, basically. And just think I'm really stupid or something. And when I saw the movie it was like okay, that did happen to me and you know, I fought to stay alive and to get through it. And so it made me feel that hey, I'm not such a failure, you know?”

Stephanie Dallam: “And it's like it lifted this guilt that she's been carrying.”

Phillips: “Self blame?”

Stephanie Dallam: “Self blame. Yeah. And thinking that she should have died, you know. And that she's for the first time that's lifted. And she is more alive because of it.”

Phillips: “You've come back.”

Katie Dallam: “Yeah. Yeah, that's what I hear.”

Katie Dallam will tell you that the support of her sister the vision of her mother and a movie that hit close to home have brought her life and her art into new and sharper focus. Her demons are still there, but their screams have been silenced.

Phillips: “Does life seem like it's worth living now?”

Katie Dallam: “Yeah. Yeah, I feel like maybe I have something to say, you know. Something to offer.”

Phillips: “A story to tell?”

Katie Dallam: “Yeah. A story to tell. That you know you can take some horrible experience and maybe you can turn it around.”

Phillips: “I sense there's still a fighter in you.”

Katie Dallam: “That's what they say.” 

When Katie Dallum agreed to sit down and tell her story, she had one request: That we express her gratitude to Clint Eastwood. We did, this week. Also, Sumya Anani, the other fighter in the ring that night, has dedicated her career to Katie. She told us if she ever gets her million-dollar shot, or even a fraction of that, she'll donate her winnings to Katie.

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