"In Loving Memory"
I remember the last moments with her like it was yesterday...My memory sometimes is a camera with an infinite memory space while on other occasions it goes blank!
This event I will never forget.
A weekend in the mid-year, I went over to a teaching hospital to see my Aunt for the first time since admitted.
Go back date to 2weeks before now, I found out my Aunt is admitted to the hospital where a childhood friend and long-time crush was studying to be a doctor-He is so cute and lovable-. If you knew him, you will crush on him too.
So, I called him and told him my Aunty was in a ward there and he promised to check on her but he did more than that.
The gentleman ensured she was very comfortable and went to visit her often.
So, back to my entering the cancer ward...
I entered the ward where she laid and saw her for the first time. She didn’t give me time to absorb everything or react to what I was looking at; instead, she drilled me on the boy -the doctor- and she wanted every little detail
At first, I am embarrassed. Then I start to think “Aunty, a boy is the last thing I want to discuss!” Jesu...Is this what cancer can do to someone? I wanted to cry and ask God why so many times, banging my head on a wall and breaking whatever my hands can grab. She didn’t deserve to be on that bed, frail and in so much pain. The tumour had spread to her vital organs and medically, it was too late.
I should have screamed, tore my clothes, damned the devil and begged for a revival.
Instead, I sat beside her and went along with the discussion. Talking boys, school, work, back to boys and how cute the doctor was...The doctor is a graduate now with a fiancée...*sighs*
Anyway, we laughed and held hands briefly before she became too tired to speak and needed rest so I had to leave but before leaving, I looked back and smiled at her. She made the last memory we had together the most pleasant one.
She wanted me to remember us laughing and not crying, she wanted me to remember us bonding and not complaining, she wanted me to remember always to look at the bright side of life no matter what the present reality looked and I will forever be grateful to her for that.
My Aunty lost her life to breast cancer in 2012 after fighting it for more than 10 years. Her first diagnosis made her undergo a mastectomy. A mastectomy is a surgery to remove a breast, and the doctors assured her it was the best possible treatment to avoid the spread of the malignant tumour. Diagnosis showed she had passed the lumpectomy stage due to late detection, a breast-conserving surgery that removes only the tumour and a small amount of surrounding tissue.
She survived the surgery the first time, banked a master degree and got promoted to principal at work. But, the tumour spread again years after and it spread beyond repair before detection.
She was a fighter, a mother, wife, sister and an Aunt.
Today, I celebrate cancer survivors, those fighting and those that became a hero fighting it to the end.
I celebrate my Aunt...
Note: Top tips for breast cancer prevention
1. Avoid becoming overweight. Obesity raises the risk of breast cancer after menopause, the time of life when breast cancer most often occurs. Avoid gaining weight over time, and try to maintain a body-mass index under 25 (calculators can be found online).
2. Eat healthy to avoid tipping the scale. Embrace a diet high in vegetables and fruit and low in sugared drinks, refined carbohydrates and fatty foods. Eat lean protein such as fish or chicken breast and eat red meat in moderation, if at all. Eat whole grains. Choose vegetable oils over animal fats.
3. Keep physically active. Research suggests that increased physical activity, even when begun later in life, reduces overall breast-cancer risk by about 10 percent to 30 percent. All it takes is moderate exercise like a 30-minute walk five days a week to get this protective effect.
4. Drink little or no alcohol. Alcohol use is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Women should limit intake to no more than one drink per day, regardless of the type of alcohol.
5. Don’t smoke. Research suggests that long-term smoking is associated with increased risk of breast cancer in some women.
6. If you bear children, breast-feed your babies for as long as possible. Women who breast-feed their babies for at least a year in total have a reduced risk of developing breast cancer later.
7. Avoid hormone replacement therapy. Menopausal hormone therapy increases risk for breast cancer. If you must take hormones to manage menopausal symptoms, avoid those that contain progesterone and limit their use to less than three years. “Bioidentical hormones” and hormonal creams and gels are no safer than prescription hormones and should also be avoided.
8. Get regular breast cancer screenings. Follow your doctor or health care provider’s recommendations to decide what type of screening you need and how often you need it.
Spread the word! Shine your light #WorldCancerDay
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