Ghadeer Kunna:
49, battled stage 3 breast cancer, Policy and Strategy advisor, Sudanese American
Kunna’s ordeal began at the age of 29 when she was living in California and, despite no history of breast cancer in her family, experienced the development of lumps in her breast. A health freak, she was doing everything right and was the least likely candidate for breast cancer. “I was into organic foods before anyone was talking about it,” she recalled.
An examination by her GP found several lumps in her breast which turned out be benign, but Kunna was not satisfied. “I felt something wasn’t quite right — so we settled on a plan that I would go in for an ultrasound every four months, and a mammogram and ultrasound every year. And I kept doing that until 2006, when I came to the UAE, through to 2010 when things started to change out of the blue. The doctor told me that there had been a mutation in the cells, and that they weren’t sure why.”
Her worst fears were proved true when in early 2013 she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer; so aggressive that the oncologist asked her to begin chemotherapy the same day. “I had been given a clean chit in November 2012 and in January 2013 this cancer was diagnosed, which the doctor said had already spread to my right lymph node, and that chemotherapy would have to start immediately,” recalled Kunna. “To be told you have breast cancer is a shock. The last thing you really want to hear is that it’s an aggressive type.
“Chemo started that day, and I made a deal with my doctor that she wouldn’t tell me how many sessions were planned. I knew I had to fight, and it didn’t matter how many times I had to go in for this treatment. I told them I didn’t want to know until it was the one before the last. Meantime, I had to fight and survive each day.” She underwent a very painful type of chemotherapy but is grateful as she says it saved her life. She opted for a double mastectomy in September 2013.
Her message to other women is to give up the stigma and fear of diagnosis.