Vigilance key to breast cancer battle
AS THE case with most cancer patients, women in black communities sometimes wait until their breast cancer cannot be treated because by the time they seek medical help, the disease is already too advanced.
With October being breast cancer awareness month one Mdantsane woman is doing her best to educate members of the public about the disease.
Lolly Tela, 33, is proud to call herself a breast cancer survivor.
Tela lost her sister to breast cancer in 2009 and has ever since been vigilant.
“I first noticed a gland in my armpit in 2013 and I was told that it was not cancerous. The following year I found a lump in my right breast and I was told that that too was not cancerous,” she said.
Tela had a biopsy done at Frere Hospital and she was told that she had cancer and last month her right breast was removed.
“I had to be strong for my mother because she could not lose another child to cancer.
“God has been my everything. I believe with all my heart that everything that happens is part of His grandmaster plan,” Tela said.
On Saturday, Tela will be involved in the Pink for Cancer Brunch happening at NTT Volkswagen at 10am for R250.
Another Mdantsane family is remembering their daughter and sister who died of breast cancer aged 31 in 2004.
Ntombizodwa Mkrola said her daughter Bukelwa told them about a lump on her breast when it was too late. —