By Dayo Farore
Wife of ace photographer, Kelechi Amadi–Obi supported her twin sister on her breast cancer awareness campaign in Nigeria during a press conference at her husband’s studio in Anthony Village on Thursday, June 30, 2011.
Mrs. Juliet Aguwa a breast cancer survivor herself, is the founder of ‘Courage 2 Dare Foundation’, a non-governmental organization which specializes in breast cancer awareness. A team of experts also came with her from the United States where she is based to educate the members of the press and inform on their aims and objectives.
Seated at the table were; Mrs. Bonnie Anderson LPN (a breast cancer consultant), Ms. Jean Schmitz (Oncology Esthecian, skincare after breast cancer), Mrs. Julia Amadi – Obi and Mrs. Juliet Aguwa. The team urged the members of the press to reach the government and advocate the inclusion of the fight against breast cancer in schools’ curriculum. And also to implore the teachers to engage their students on regular check-up to help avoid Cancer once the symptoms are found. They further explained that there are also cases where men have breast cancer, even though the rate is very low.
Aguwa will speak on the cancer awareness tour around Nigeria in the event tagged, ‘I Survived Breast Cancer (Helping The African Woman)’ scheduled to run from Monday, July 4 to July 8, 2011. The event which kicked off at the University of Lagos featured Nollywood act, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, singer Lynxxx and singer D’Amadeus from the UK..
Speaking with Nigerian Entertainment Today (NET) at the press conference, Mrs. Juliet Aguwa threw more light on how she managed, the effect it had on her family and the process leading to how she was cured.
Madam how did you feel when you were first told you had Breast Cancer?
I was diagnosed in 2008. When I was told that it was breast cancer, obviously like every other women I felt like it was death sentence. Being a mother of two kids and a wife, it was really hard for me to hear that word let alone have it, so obviously like every other woman I felt like it was a death sentence. But at the same time, I had to snap out of it and get on to the next step which was how do we go about treating this.
How did your husband take it when he first heard you have it?
Of course, it was a big shock to him. It’s hard to imagine breast cancer let alone learning a member of your family or someone close to you has it. But he was a great support, he was there. Going through breast cancer alone is very challenging… When you have a partner who is there with you and making you feel everything is going to be okay, you will be able to fight it, going through the treatment you are going through successfully… Though I am not saying every treatment of Cancer are successful.
How long did the treatment take?
Well, I had the treatment to a Chemotherapy and radiation. I had 6months of Chemotherapy, because I had an aggressive Cancer which was a stage 3C, there are 4 stages of Cancer. So I had 6months of Chemotherapy and 6months of Radiation.
During the time of the treatment, were you admitted or you go from home?
Well, for Chemotherapy, you have to just go to the hospital… Chemotherapy looks more like an I.V where you have it administered into the body and Chemo is designed to kill the Cancer cells, but because it’s poisoning, it also affects other cells in the body. So I went once every 7days to get my Chemo and usually for you get it, for four days, you are pretty much out, you can’t do it. It weakens you because it’s a strong medication. But with the advice of the doctors, you constantly take fluids to wash it off. By the end of five days, you end back to get another one. That was consistently going on for 6months.
What are the symptoms? Or what would tell young women who feel they are too young to have it?
The youngest woman to be diagnosed of breast cancer was 10years old. So that goes to tell you that breast cancer knows no age, gender or colour… For me, I advice young women to check themselves. Self detection; Know your body. If you don’t check yourself, you don’t know what has changed. If you don’t know your body, you don’t know a new thing that has affected the body. By knowing your body very well, you’ll understand that oh, this is not supposed to be here. Is that normal? I had been through my physicals at the hospital. Two weeks later, I noticed a lump in my breast so I told my husband who then advised me to go do a further check. So when I went to see my primary health physician, at first, she said it’s normal that was how my breast structure is, but I said it doesn’t feel normal. So we have to proceed to doing a mammogram, then we found there was something suspicious, from there we had to do a bio-scan and I then confirmed that it was Cancerous. So it’s always good to check yourself. Once a month for every woman.
So do you intend to involve other NGOs to work with you on this project?
Of course. This is why I have to come to my sister since I don’t know the NGOs and the media on ground. Although the US government is helping, we also plan on engaging the government here.
So what would you tell the young Nigerian who feels, how is this my business?
It is your business, because it might not affect you directly. But you have to think about your mother, your sister, your daughter, your friend, so one way or the other, Breast Cancer has affected us directly or indirectly. So it’s everybody’s business. Breast Cancer is a death rate in Nigeria as well as in Africa.
Thank you your time, madam.
Thank you.
