I was the picture of health.. but I’d just had serious surgery and was in pain. It’s important that everyone listens to their body
Blogger reveals her mission to raise awareness of cancer in young people
As Kumba Dauda filmed a new ad for one of beauty giant L’Oreal’s recent campaigns, she looked a stunning picture of health.
But just weeks before the TV and social media advert was shot, she had a life- saving operation to remove a quarter of her left lung after being diagnosed with cancer.
Kumba, a blogger and social media inf luencer who runs her own digital marketing business, was just 25 when she was told she had a rare form of lung cancer.
Medics initially dismissed the breathless-ness she was suffering from as anxiety. Her tumour was finally picked up on a scan after she started to cough up blood.
Kumba, who lost her mum to bowel cancer when she was just 16, had the gruelling surgery at Clydebank’s Golden Jubilee Hospital in February last year. The following month, she was filming in Prague as part of the L’Oreal campaign.
Now she wants to use what she has been through to raise awareness of cancer among young people and encourage them to listen to their bodies if they fear something is wrong.
Kumba, 27, who is from Glasgow but now lives in London, said: “When I look back at the ad I filmed, there is no way you would ever know what I had just been through.
“I looked so healthy despite having been diagnosed with cancer and going through a serious operation.
“I was smiling and happy – I was so glad to be there – but at the same time I was still recovering from the operation and on medicine for the pain. “I looked healthy too before my diagnosis, even though I was suffering from symptoms of the disease and knew within myself that something wasn’t right.
“That’s why it’s so important that you listen to your body.
“My breathless-ness and coughing were initially dismissed as anxiety. But cancer and other serious illness can affect anyone of any age.” Kumba, who has run digital training in idyllic locations including Bali and Mykonos, was working hard and growing her business, Wholehearted Social , when she first started to feel unwell.
She said: “I’d moved to London but was travelling all over for my work. “I absolutely loved what I was doing and my business was going really well but I started to feel run down.” Kumba visited her GP, who told her the most likely cause of the breathless-nes s a nd persistent cough she wa s suf fering from was anxiety. She said:
“I was anxious at the time. For my work, I was meeting a lot of new people and pushing myself out of my comfort zone but I intuitively knew there was something deeper going on.”
Kumba was given antidepressants, which she never took, and was referred for CBT counselling.
When she started coughing blood, she attended the accident and emergency department of her local hospital in London.
She was shocked when tests revealed she had a rare endobronchial carcinoid tumour.
Kumba said: “I had actually gone to hospital twice but first time around the scan I was given didn’t show the cancer because it was in a position where it was hard to see.
“I could have left it at that but, when I continued to cough blood, I knew I had to go back.”
On being given her diagnosis, Kumba – who has never smoked – moved home to Glasgow for support.
She was told her best chance of beating the cancer was for surgeons to remove the entire section of the affected lung.
Kumba said: “I was just 16 when I lost my mum to cancer so knew how devastating the disease could be. My mum had bowel cancer, which she lived with for eight years before she passed away, aged just 55.
“After her death, my dad arranged for my sister and I to undergo genetic testing as we had lost a number of relatives to the disease.
“I tested positive for the genetic disorder Lynch syndrome, meaning I had a greatly increased risk of developing colon or rectal cancer but the condition has no link at all to lung cancer. I’ve just been unlucky.”
As Kumba prepared for the operation,on, she channel led the strength she had seen in her brave mumum Elizabeth, who wass a social worker in Glasgow.
She said:aid: “My mumum was amazing.zing. She wass a walking paradox. She was fierce,ce, yet kind. Small,all, yet mighty. Strong, yet soft.
“She was f rom Glasgow while my dad, Tamba,mba, is f rom Sierier ra Leone.
“Growingwing up, my family were the only people of colour in the area, with our brown skin, afro curls and African names descending from our ancestors.
“My parents met at a dance class in Glasgow and my mum travelled back with my dad to Sierra Leone during a civil war to marry him in his home village.
“It was my mum’s way of making a statement. Instead of marrying in Glasgow, it was a small act of rebellion to challenge what was, at the time, socially unacceptable.”
Kumba remained iin hospital for a week after the successful oopepe ratra ion to re e mo move her tumoutumour. As she recovrecovered at homhom e , she acceaccepted an offer from L’OreL’Oreal to film the advert prompromoting its GarniGarnier range of Olia hairh dye. KumKumba, who has mmodelled for L’Oreal in the past, said: “After my operation, it felt so important to put what had happened behind me and move on.
“I had decided, ‘ This won’t kill me, I won’t let it.’
“I felt I had so much I still wanted to contribute to the world. This was not the end of the road for me and I wanted to get back out there.
“I was supposed to f ly out to the Czech Republic to film in Prague but the doctor told me I wasn’t allowed to fly in case my lung collapsed.
“In the end, I travelled by train – taking 25 hours to get there and 25 hours to get back.
“The person who made the travel arrangements knew what I had been through but I don’t think anyone else on the shoot had any idea. I’m proud of the film we made.”
A year- and- a- half on from her surgery, Kumba continues to attend hospital for regular health checks but has recovered fully from her operation and feels fit and well.
She wants to do all she can to raise awareness of cancer in young people and help a range of charities through a non-profit tier of her company she plans to set up.
She said: “My mum spent her whole life fighting to create a better, more equal world and I want to carry on the mission.
“I want to use what I have been through for good.”
Kumba has joined women from across the online community who have shared their inspiring stories in the second volume of new book series She Is Unstoppable.