Survivor: Victory possible in battle against cancer

When a doctor told Elizabeth Njeri that she had breast cancer, her first reaction was to laugh. After all it was April 1, 2009, and she thought it was an April Fools Day prank, only it wasn’t.

The mother of four had just turned 50 when she was diagnosed with cancer. She had visited a hospital in Nairobi for a test after noticing a lump on her breast.

She probably would not have gone for the test had her two sons not insisted after she mentioned casually to them that she had noticed a growth.

One day, on her way home from her tailoring job, she alighted at the hospital, took what she regarded as a routine test and went home. Days later, a doctor called her to collect her results. Her sons, James Gaita and George Gathogo, accompanied her. Their father was away on a business trip.

“He broke the news to my son first,” Njeri said of her encounter.

Chop? Chop what?

According to her, the doctor asked her son, ‘Has your mother informed you that she has breast cancer?’

After talking to Njeri’s son, the doctor then called her into the consultation room, took a pen and paper, drew an oval shape with a dot at the centre and made a chopping sign with his hand.

“Chop? Chop what?” she asked him.

That was when he broke the news to her. He explained that she had cancer and that she would need an appointment for an operation to remove the growth.

At first, she thought it was a bad joke. However, on further reflection, it occurred to her that the doctor was a professional and would not play games with her health.

“I could not breathe,” she recalled in an interview with the Nation on Wednesday. “Tears rolled down my cheeks. At that moment, all I wanted was to die since I knew my life would never be the same again.”

Indeed, her life started crumbling right in front of her eyes.

First, Njeri was unhappy with the way the doctor had broken the news, first to her son and then to her through a drawing and a menacing movement of his hand.

“One is supposed to be taken through a counselling process, not in a harsh way like he did,” she said, with the benefit of hindsight.

A REASON TO LIVE

Of course, Njeri never went back to that hospital again. Later, she told her story to a friend who recommended that she try Kenyatta National Hospital.

There, fortunately, the doctors were understanding and she was counselled by a team of professionals.

“The whole procedure that I was taken through gave me a reason to live,” she said.

However, just as she was embarking on her journey of recovery, her social life began to unravel.

First, her friends and relatives started to shun her and they stopped visiting. Then, she realised that in fact, her husband was not just making business trips.

“I was on my own in this journey,” she recalled.

Then the stigma started when her breast started to sag, so she stopped going out because people would point at it and giggle.

“I remained indoors as I awaited for my death. Everyone was eager to bury me,” she said.

She even stopped working after her right breast started swelling.

Only her sons gave her the courage to soldier on because they did not give up hope.

For two years, she was in a state of complete dependency. She had even sold all her possessions to pay for her treatment.

“I woke up one morning, accepted my situation and came out preaching to the public that I am a survivor. The stigma was as bad as the disease itself, I had to fight it,” she recalled.

Today, she is cured of the cancer and is proud to declare herself a survivor.

“So now I’m here! Done with the stigma. My hair is grown. I’m no longer slim bodied, the pain is gone. Some of my friends are back but I no longer trust them,” she said.

As the human family celebrates World Cancer Day today, 56-year-old Njeri has a reason to smile — she is a breast cancer survivor.

“I insist on sharing my story as much as possible to let others know that they’re not alone; that there are other women going through this; and that they, too, can be strong and survive,” she said.

Today, she will be among the guests who will address the people who will gather at Kamukunji Dedan Kimathi grounds in Nyeri County to celebrate World Cancer Day alongside First Lady Margaret Kenyatta.