They faced it all and they want others fighting cancer to do so too
By Kumudini Hettiarachchi
We are the survivors! This is the message of hope and strength that they are shouting from the rooftops, so that each and everyone who is living with cancer or who has beaten what many believe, under a dreadful misconception, is a killer disease, can join them.
Welcome to the recently-formed ‘CANSUR-VIVE’ Trust, obviously punning on the word ‘cancer’.
There is laughter and joking and not an inkling of the usual feeling of being victims or a death sentence hanging over their heads when we meet smart and attractive Roshani Silva, 42, and Sandy Jayasuriya, 55.
The mother of one daughter, Roshani who lives in Welisara found a getiththa (small lump) in her right breast by chance eight years ago. Visits to doctors followed, an ultrasound scan and also a needle-biopsy to extract some cells from the tiny growth for testing.
It may be eight years ago, but the day she collected the ‘positive’ report is a stark memory still and her face breaks up as emotion grips her very being and tears gather in her eyes.
Immediately, both moral and physical support comes from Sandy, seated by Roshani’s side, as she strokes her shoulder.
“My husband was at work and got late to come. So I went to collect the report by myself. I couldn’t understand it and rushed to my family doctor,” recalls Roshani who up to that time had not been too worried.
As she stared at the family doctor, “his face changed”. She was gripped by shock. “Harima amaru vuna daraganna,” she keeps repeating, explaining that it was very difficult to bear.
It was a ‘secret’ that Roshani and her husband did not tell their daughter who was just 11 years old at that time. Literally, life came to a halt. They, however, did not delay but began the right treatment immediately, “tak, tak gala”, amidst numerous “prashna” (issues), mainly financial which necessitated the selling of a valuable property in Kandana and pulling out all their savings. “Geth bageta hadala thibbe (our house was also half-built),” she says recalling the tough times but also the immense support that she got from her husband, relatives and friends.
The “loku satana” is over now and even though she has undergone breast removal surgery, breast reconstruction has helped her to feel a whole woman, with- out loss of her femininity and this she recommends to all those undergoing breast-cancer surgery.
It is a similar tale that Sandy, a mother of a 32-year-old son, who lives in Pepiliyana tells us. Designer of wardrobes for movies such as ‘Machang’, ‘Akasa Kusum’ and many more and beautician well-known in the glamorous world of cinema and hobnobbing with the stars, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013.
“I have undergone 10 operations, for various reasons including cancer, six sessions of chemotherapy and 30 sessions of radiation and am minus most of my organs,” bubbly Sandy smiles. But when the diagnosis came, the question uppermost in her mind was: “Why me?”
She lets us in on a phobia, even her husband had not been aware of, before cancer struck her. “Whenever I passed the Cancer Hospital at Maharagama, I would look the other way. I was even scared to look at the board.”
Trying to keep cancer away from her mind, it seemed ironical that it was this very same disease which caught her in its grip.
She too has found the right people to treat her and her husband, family and friends have been around her. Some moments though have been difficult, she says, going back to the time when she had lovely black hair flowing down to her waist. With the cancer treatment, she would shed lumps of her tresses and she took the decision to shave her head. “My husband couldn’t look at me at the beginning, he was so sad,” says Sandy.
Her hair has grown back and she also urges women who undergo surgical removal of their breasts to have breast reconstruction done too, to give them confidence in their femininity and not feel that they have lost something.
“Be positive,” urges Sandy to all those out there, battling cancer, while her passionate plea to other people is that those with cancer do not need sympathy but empathy. “What we need is for people to understand and share our feelings rather than feel compassion, sorrow or pity for us.”
She pays tribute to Consultant Oncological Surgeon Dr. Naomal Perera and Consultant Oncologist Dr. Sarath Abeykoon for going beyond their jobs of treating patients and “being there” for the patients all the time.
Roshani and Sandy are just two of the ‘foot soldiers’ among many breast-cancer survivors, who are part of CAN-SUR- Maharagama; Dimuthu Abeyesekera, the Chief Executive Officer of a securities company; Mahanama Dodampegama, Managing Director of a pharmaceutical company; and Dr. Nishani Fernando, a Medical Officer attached to Lanka Hospitals.
There is much promise in the future, with the Trust intending to form support groups for cancer survivors within each province and later at district level, while initiating a ‘Cancer Fund’, a longfelt need, to look after the financial needs of the poor survivors for their annual checkups, possible financial aid for their children’s education etc.
By 2018, it expects to organize the first- ever Cancer Survivors’ Walk in Sri Lanka to prove that it is not a deadly disease.