Beating breast cancer – a survivor’s perspective

Oct 25, 2020 News

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By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – Beating cancer is no easy feat; for most persons, it requires more than just right treatment and care. Prayers, support and keeping a positive attitude are among the essentials to overcoming the deadly disease.
Just ask 88-year-old Claudia Linguist, who has been a breast survivor for over 36 years. Ms. Linguist opened up to Kaieteur News about the faith, determination and care it took to triumph over the disease. Despite losing both her breasts during the course of her treatment, the mother of two is more than grateful that she has lived to enjoy a ripe old age.
“I have always been a person who likes to look at the brighter side of things so when I was diagnosed with cancer in 1984, I held on to my faith and continued to believe and work towards beating the disease,” Linguist said of her battle with the terminal illness.
She recalled that she was just about 50 years old when she received her first diagnosis.
“I was grieving because I had lost two grandchildren and the second granddaughter had just died. I had lost a lot of weight but I didn’t feel sick or anything so I didn’t visit the doctor,” Linguist explained.
She said that a surprise visit from her sister, who was a nurse in Barbados, made all the difference.
“My sister flew in to surprise me and she noticed that I was pining away. I told her that I was grieving but she didn’t take my word for it. She arranged for me to see a medex and after my first visit to the medex, I was referred to see Dr. Lee.”
The 88-year-old said she would never forget those dreaded words of Dr. Lee, “you have breast cancer.”
The woman said that as much as her gut wrenched, she looked to the doctor for the best options to rid herself of the disease.She noted that, “A breast cancer diagnosis was not what I expected to hear but as soon as he told me, I asked about my options. How soon would I be able to do the surgery?”
She noted that the decision to remove her breast was not an easy but necessary one.
Within months, she had undergone treatment to have her right breast removed and was on the road to recovery.
Ms. Linguist said that as a result of the diagnosis, her diet was significantly altered and she became more conscious of her body.
Cancer requires a quick change of your diet; no red meat, lots of fish, vegetables and fresh fruits.
“My diet is like that for years now. I only indulge in beef and so on like once a year; at Christmas time,” the cancer survivor explained.
Despite those changes, Linguist recalled that only six years after the first diagnosis, she noticed that a lump the size of a chick pea had developed in her left breast.
“I saw the doctor at the cancer clinic and learnt that the cancer had spread to my left side breast,” the woman said adding that she wasted no time but did the surgery to remove my left side breast.
In addition to losing her breasts, the survivor endured months of chemotherapy and radiology treatment to help destroy the cancer cells.
The cancer warrior believes this is the worst part of the treatment in her story of survival, yet she said that she was focused more on beating the disease.
“To survive anything particularly breast cancer, you have to maintain a positive mind set. You have stay believing that you will. The right treatment is important but I also prayed a lot that God would be merciful to me and I tried to stay positive. So, I would encourage anybody with cancer to maintain a positive outlook that definitely helped me, even on my worst days,” she said.
Though she had not been diagnosed with cancer herself, Nurse Sharon Mansell is every bit of a cancer warrior. She has walked beside scores of women and men as they went from diagnosis to full recovery or in some circumstances to death.
Nurse Mansell noted as a healthcare professional empathy and having a positive attitude is very essential to helping her patients cope with and beat the disease. She stressed that it is important that cancer patients know that “their diagnosis is not a death sentence.”
“It is important to just show support for a person who is diagnosed or going through treatment. Offering a positive encouraging word or telling them that many people have survived and went on to thrive in life is as vital as providing them with the treatment,” said Nurse Mansell as she recalled her years of providing chemotherapy for cancer patients in collaboration with the radiation oncologists.
Nurse Mansell had worked at the Cancer Institute of Guyana from May 2007–March 2012.
In addition, Nurse Mansell had her own personal experience with cancer. She lost her mother at a young age to the disease but that dreadful loss gave her the insight, which she needed to understand what her patients go through.
“I know for sure that walking with my patients and showing them that I understand, offering a positive word goes a far way in their fight against the disease,” the nurse added.
“It’s never an easy thing most women have to deal with…the effects of losing their self image; the loss of their hair due to chemotherapy or the removal of a breast or both breasts. Some of them find it hard to look at themselves in the mirror so, as a nurse, I had to find ways to encourage and support them.”
And like most health professionals, Nurse Mansell is a stern advocate for early detection.
“I know from experience that it is better to do regular checks to ensure that you are free than to assume that everything is alright with you then to find out that you have cancer when the cancer is at a late stage,” the Nurse said.
The nurse noted that a checkup is important because cancer is a painless disease particularly in its early stage.
“You only start to experience pain and certain symptoms towards the end of it,” she said.
So it is important to keep checking with your doctor or do self examinations; a key thing to look for is if you have family members who had cancer, then you are at a higher risk of the disease, she said.
The nurse noted that while having a support mechanism is always key, eating right and maintaining a diet that is primarily free of red meat is quite important.
“Red meats like beef and duck is a not an option for cancer patients or those at risk for the disease. Lots of vegetables, fish and fresh fruits will help to build the system to fight cancer,” she advised.

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