Cancer survivor urges women to take health into their own hands

CANCER survivor Nonkosi Titus believes that speaking about the disease and involving your family is the best treatment for the disease.

Titus was speaking at the Celebrate Life Gala dinner held on Saturday at the newly-established Mayfair hotel in Mthatha.

The dinner was organised on her behalf by the NPO, Celebrate Life Foundation, which was started in 2013 to support people living with cancer as well as raise cancer awareness.

Each year the charity hosts a dinner to celebrate a survivor and to honour those who have lost the fight against the disease.

Titus said she would not have survived without the support of her brother and a friend and she is now on a mission to try and make women more aware of the importance of taking their health into their own hands.

Get the mammograms, “and stay on top of any type of change in your breasts”, Titus said.

She was diagnosed in 2013 after she noticed an unusual lump in her breast and had a mammogram. This was followed by surgery. Her left breast was removed and she had chemotherapy.

“Chemotherapy makes you weak and you actually feel like you want to die. My family thinks I was strong throughout the whole thing but I really wasn’t, because even a small thing like having your hair fall out changes you,” she said.

Titus, who has yet to have reconstructive surgery, said losing her breast was hard to come to terms with, it was like it was the end of her femininity and womanhood.

She said another big challenge for women, especially black, rural women was accessing cancer treatment in the public sector.

“I want to motivate and give support to other people, especially these rural women. There are no facilities for treatment in rural areas – they have to take long bus trips, that’s tiring and costly and they do this all alone,” she said.

Titus added: “There’s nothing like being in the light and not hiding away, let’s talk about this so that other people can also find their way again like I did.”