Today is World Cancer Day, a day that unites the world in the fight against cancer. Today we bring you a survivor story by Kessiena Martins.
For her she used to examine her breasts frequently and did not expect to have anything wrong. So the day she was told she had cancer, was quite devastating. It had started as a regular day where she took her daughter who was ill to the hospital. Her daughter ended up being admitted so while she waited and stayed with her she decided to feel her breasts and that was when she discovered a lump.
According to her she told the doctor at the hospital who ran a biopsy and sent it to South Africa for examination, after a while the results came back and that was when she was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer of the breast.
As expected she was in shock and it did not really sink in till she got home and sat down to think about it. After a while she prayed and in her words “I told God that we are in this together and I knew He would not desert me”. When her husband got home from work, she told him about it, then called close family and friends to tell them and everyone immediately moved to action.
At this stage Kessiena narrates that “First thing they did was arrange for my treatment abroad, my brother-in-law got us a hospital in India and my sister traveled and stayed with me all through the 9 months of treatment”. It was tough! with this disease you really need the love of family and support of friends. You need a lot of 
encouragement and companionship, prayer and counselling because you really go through a lot of things. There are both the good and bad sides, the bad unfortunately outweighing the good because of the kind of radical treatments administered.
The chemotherapy, surgeries, cause reactions and most of the time you are not yourself. You lose your hair and you’re not happy with that, you lose your appetite and you’re not happy with that. You cannot eat just anything which can be upsetting so you definitely need the grace of God to pull through.
Not only is it emotionally draining but it is also a very expensive disease to have, you need a lot of money and you cannot do it alone. You might have to seek help from family, friends and even good Samaritans out there but with a strong support system financially and emotionally, you can survive it by the grace of God and I am a living testimony.
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She advises that cancer is not a death sentence especially if it is detected early. Always be consistent with your treatment and eat healthy even after you survive it. You always have to be on top of your game because even if it can be removed, it is a very tricky disease, it can reappear later somewhere else so you have to always be on the look out for new signs.
She also advises that anyone going through it must think positive because this will tremendously help your recovery process and after treatment ensure you go for regular check ups. It might start from every 6 months to 1 year to every 2 years till the time it is not very necessary. Even if there is no cure yet, we can still fight it, it is not a good thing to have and I pray for those going through it right now that God will heal them and give them a speedy recovery. AmenÂ
[Tweet “With a strong support system emotionally and financially, you can survive it with the grace of God”]
We thank God for Kessiena’s story of survival. Cancer when detected early accompanied with the right treatment, strong support system, prayers and faith in God can bring healing like it did for Kessiena.
Contributed by Kessiena Martins
