Tales of courage in breast cancer battle

PHOTO | EMMA NZIOKA Cancer survivor Jerioth Wambui King’ori, 35, tries on her new wig. The Kenya Cancer Association donated wigs and prosthesis to cancer patients and survivors at the Kenyatta National Hospital on January 8, 2013.

What you need to know:

  • 30 women drawn from various parts of the country handed a lease of life when they received a wig and breast prosthesis to help them cope with the effects of breast cancer

They joked about their hair loss, and when these women removed their headscarves, their baldness was a sign of boldness.

There was no shame, just courageous hearts that reminded you of former English barrister and comedy writer Clive Anderson who once said about his lack of hair: “I’m not bald... just taller than my hair.”

If they could, the headscarves could have narrated tales of the wearers’ emotional struggles of losing hair every other day from the effects of chemotherapy.

One look at a neighbour’s head on the right and another glance on the left, brought the grim reality of breast cancer statistics in the country to reality.

Thirty breast cancer survivors on Tuesday met in solidarity to share tales about their journey in the treatment and management of cancer that had, in the process, led to their hair loss.

Rapidly growing cells

They had not only lost their precious hair, but also had undergone either single or double mastectomy, (the removal of the breast or breast tissue).

Ms Jerioth Wambui Wachira, 35, lost her left breast to cancer last May after she was diagnosed with “stage three” cancer.

When she started chemotherapy treatment, her hair began falling, one strand after another. (Chemotherapy is a form of cancer treatment in which the patient takes one or more drugs that interferes with the growth of cancerous cells.)

The hair loss is caused by these cancer drugs that attack rapidly growing cells in the patient’s body, including those in the hair roots.

Some chemotherapy drugs are more likely than others to cause hair loss, and different doses can cause anything from mere thinning to complete baldness.

However, the hair may regrow three-to-10 months after treatment ends.

The mother of three girls aged 17, 13 and eight years told the Nation that her journey of breast cancer treatment had not been easy, but has been made bearable by supportive family and friends.

“I tell my female friends and my 17-year-old daughter to conduct self-breast examination monthly because that is how I discovered a lump in January 2011,” Jerioth, who works as a casual labourer in Nyeri, said.

She underwent mastectomy of the left breast at the Nyeri Provincial General Hospital and started a chemotherapy course at KNH to arrest the disease’s spread.

In her final chemo doses, Jerioth is now a peer educator at her rural home in Huhoi-ni, where she advocates for early screening.

The loss of her breast and later her hair are affects she had to deal with after the initial treatment, but with the wig and prosthesis, she says she will be a more confident person and reduce the stares from curious persons who are too scared to ask about her looks.

Prosthesis, either external or implanted, substitutes for or supplements a missing or defective part of the body, in this case a breast.

Make them cope

She was part of the 30 women drawn from various parts of the country who were on Tuesday handed a lease of life when they received a wig and breast prosthesis to help them cope with the effects of breast cancer.

“The prosthesis will make me feel like a woman, while the wig will enhance my beauty,” said Jerioth, who is today undergoing her second-last chemotherapy dose at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

Kenya Cancer Association vice-chairperson David Makumi told the Nation that the money raised during the breast awareness event during a ‘Hair shaving campaign’, at Village Market in October last year was used to buy imported prosthesis through a local dealer, while the wigs were donated by a local company.

In Kenya, the medical personnel attend to at least double the recommended number of patients.

According to specialists, if diagnosed early and with proper management, cancer is curable through use of radiotherapy, surgery or chemotherapy, singly or in combination.