‘The thought of living with one breast was scary’ : Cancer survivors relive their fear of the disease

“It’s not just the chemo. It’s not just the surgery. It’s the fear of living with one breast.”

These are the words of a breast cancer survivor who faced the fear of having to have her breast removed.

Speaking at a cancer awareness event in Kliptown, Soweto, on Thursday, 61-year-old Vicky Mothibi said she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. She knew that treatment would be painful but she was never prepared for the surgery.

“After the surgery, I had to go through the phase of not having one breast,” she said with a deep sigh.

Mothibi said the diagnosis came at a difficult stage in her life, when she had just lost her mother and having to deal with fear and grief.

“My brother became my biggest supporter and when I started chemotherapy he was even driving me to appointments, fetched me from the hospital while assuring me that everything would be OK,” Mothibi said.

Another survivor, Fikile Dlamini,58, was a radiographer who spent years helping patients to detect illnesses early.

“I have spent my life under a healthy diet, attended gym four to five times week, I’d never imagined that I would one day be on the receiving end of being diagnosed with breast cancer,” Dlamini said.

In 2022, she felt a tiny lump on her breast and dismissed it thinking it was a mosquito bite as it was tiny.

“My professional instincts kicked in and I went to check it out. That is when results confirmed triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the cancer,” Dlamini said.

“I was in disbelief. You help patients every day, you counsel them. And suddenly, you are the patient.”

Both survivors stressed the importance of early detection.

Dlamini said her cancer was caught early enough for a lumpectomy, avoiding more extensive surgery.

“I could have missed that lump if I didn’t treat it early.”

Mothibi added that she had to make changes after her diagnosis by cutting out sugar, red meat and processed food.

“Cancer is naughty, It likes sugar. When you eat sugar, the cancer cells are happy.”

Gauteng health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko also spoke at the awareness event and said the government had a responsibility to ensure no patient faced cancer alone.

“Cancer is not a death sentence, you will survive as long as you take your treatment and as long as we, as government, play our role.”

Nkomo-Ralehoko said she was aware that oncology services in the province had faced pressure over the years due to ageing equipment, staff shortages and historic underinvestment.

“A comprehensive provincial cancer plan is being implemented to improve early detection, expand screening at primary healthcare levels and strengthening radiation oncology services,”Nkomo-Ralehoko said.

She said replacing equipment, improving laboratory turnaround times and building partnerships with the private sector were part of efforts to reduce backlogs and rebuild public trust.

For Esther Sibanyoni, a mother of four from Lehae, the word cancer was hard to swallow.

Sibanyoni shared with TimesLIVE that she was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer in February 2023 after experiencing months of unexplained illness including vomiting blood.

“When you are sick, you expect other things but not cancer. When they told me, I was so stressed. I couldn’t take it,” Sibanyoni said.

She said doctors struggled to find the cause of her being weak until her neck swelled and a biopsy confirmed the cancer.

“Chemotherapy was the hardest part. I thought it was killing me. I thought I was going to die. But it was not killing me, it was helping me.”

The changes of living with cancer took a toll on Sibanyoni’s son who began using drugs as he struggled to cope, but the family eventually went for counselling to help them understand the disease and its side effects.

“Sometimes I was very weak. I would vomit blood. I couldn’t eat. I lost my appetite completely,” she said.

Sibanyoni urged newly diagnosed patients not to abandon treatment.

“If you skip treatment, it will kill you but if you go accordingly with treatment, it won’t. You must trust the process.”

She acknowledged that chemotherapy and scans are expensive but expressed gratitude for the department of health’s support.

“Chemo is expensive. Very expensive. It’s not just chemo, you must go for scans too,” she said.

TimesLIVE