October 29, (THEWILL) – October, the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, popularly known as Pink October, is a period for increasing awareness of the disease and raising funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure.
The campaign aims to promote screening and prevention of the disease, which affects one in eight women. The month features a number of campaigns and programmes conducted by groups ranging from breast cancer advocacy organisations to local community organisations and major retailers.
The campaigns are aimed at supporting people diagnosed with breast cancer, educating people about breast cancer risk factors, stressing the importance of regular screening, starting at age 40 or an age that’s appropriate for your personal breast cancer risk, and fundraising for breast cancer research.
In commemoration of Breast Cancer Awareness month, Ivory Ukonu takes a look at brave Nigerians who battled cancer and won.
Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu
The First Lady of Ondo State, Mrs Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, is a breast cancer survivor and has been for over 26 years. It all started in 1997 when she was diagnosed at the age of 43. She had felt a lump in her breast and immediately became scared it may turn out to be cancer. She kept the discovery to herself for almost one week until she was forced to do something about the lump after watching a television programme that stated, ‘this programme could save your life’.
The programme was about an American woman who had breast cancer and survived it. The programme saved Mrs Akeredolu’s life. It focused on the American’s journey through breast cancer diagnosis and the treatment she received. She shared her experience during the programme, using the narrative to lift the spirit of those undergoing such an experience and she benefited from it. That was how she summoned the courage to go to hospital. As they say, the rest is history.
The first treatment was radical mastectomy, which is the removal of the breast with the lump. This was in 1997. Her experience was one of shattering loneliness, unavailability of information and group support, coupled with the tight- lip syndrome and indifference surrounding the disease. The situation inspired her to do something that would bring about a positive and lasting change in the attitude of breast cancer victims and the Nigerian society towards breast cancer and sufferers. This prompted her to set up the Breast Cancer Symposium of the Breast Cancer Association of Nigeria, BRECAN, with its major goal of sensitising the general public about the deadly disease by breaking down the wall of secrecy and stigmatisation associated with breast cancer.
Chinwe Omoaka-Godwin
A legal practitioner and wife of Godwin Omoaka, SAN, discovered she had breast cancer through normal routine checks. A very close friend requested her company as she visited her radiologist to have her breast checked. Chinwe also took the opportunity and got her breasts checked out, even though she had done a breast ultrasound and mammogram four months earlier, though in a different facility, and no lump was discovered.
This time around, a suspicious lump was found in Chinwe’s breast. Further examination confirmed the lump was cancerous. She immediately left for the United Kingdom within a week of her diagnosis. After her surgery at The London Clinic, her histology result came out a week later with a fantastic prognosis. Luckily, she didn’t have to go through chemotherapy as the disease was in its early stage, which is stage zero, where one’s lymph nodes are clear. It had not spread to any part of her body. According to her, that was when she knew that one could have breast cancer and not go through all those harsh treatments for breast cancer and that early detection could save one’s life.
Surviving this life changing disease prompted Chinwe to set up Worthy Wellness Initiative, a foundation she runs to promote awareness of breast cancer and to help women, particularly the low-income women, with breast screening and awareness campaigns.
Worthy Wellness Initiative advocates regular screening for breast cancer. It also ensures that women who are diagnosed with the disease have access to treatment and after care. It is the foundation’s desire to help women diagnosed with breast cancer, with funding for treatment. Nevertheless, her foundation still supports breast cancer patients with the little fund that it is able to muster and it ensures they have access to good medical advice and treatment.
Atinuke Lawal
The fight against cancer is often unpredictable. Some people live to tell the story, others are not so privileged. One of those that survived is Atinuke Lawal. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, she felt as if her life had ended, wondering what she did to have breast cancer. She tried several hospitals, but the results were the same. It was the beginning of her two-year ordeal with cancer and it came with so many different challenges. It was also about the same time when Ebola evaded Nigeria and everyone was scared to use the hospital.
But for her determination to survive, Atinuke would have succumbed to the disease. Even though she discovered the lump was in its early stage, she lived in denial for almost two years which was more or less a time bomb waiting to explode. According to her, she met the wrong doctors, which made it difficult for her to make a decision about treatment and so she only had lumpectomy done without treatment.
Exactly a year after the lumpectomy, the cancer came back. She tried to travel out for treatment, but she was denied visa several times. God kept her here in Nigeria, perhaps to give her a story to tell, despite the state of our health sector which included a high mortality rate.
Atinuke was tested emotionally. The disease took her on an extraordinary journey, making her exhibit strength that she never knew she had. It made her to discover her purpose in life. Today she is cancer free and to this end, she set up Atinuke Cancer Foundation to advocate, create awareness, support patients and expose the scourge of cancer.
She also set aside one day, which she aptly tagged ‘Cancer Survivors’ Day,’ a special occasion dedicated to celebrating the strength, resilience and triumph of individuals who have overcome cancer. It is also a day to honour the courage and determination of cancer survivors, recognize their journey and offer support to those still battling cancer.
Eno Essien
She is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Rheytrak Limited, a Vehicle Tracking and Recovery company licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), This makes her the first licensed female to venture into this line of business and she excelled. While she was busy building her business and making an appreciable impact in the society, she was busy battling breast cancer. She had just turned 30 when she discovered she had cancer. She told her mum who asked her to leave as they didn’t expect it to be cancer. But a few months after, while in the United Kingdom on holiday, she decided to do a routine checkup. Again, her mum told her not to do anything and just come back to Nigeria. But while discussing it with a family friend who is a surgeon, he encouraged her to get it removed and checked. That was how it was discovered to be cancerous. She left Nigeria within two weeks of the discovery to the UK, where she got a lumpectomy, six rounds of chemotherapy and 20 rounds of radiotherapy. She has been cancer free for about 11 years now.
Although she did not set up a nongovernmental organisation, to help victims or survivors of cancer, what she does is to reach out to victims in her own personal capacity in hope that her own story will encourage them. She sometimes sits down in the hospital with these victims as they go through their chemotherapy treatments or their hospital appointments.
