Hazel Marimbiza
WHAT often gets lost in the parade of pink and catchy slogans during breast cancer awareness month is just how emotionally draining it is to fight and survive something that kills about 42,170 women every year.
For Nontokozo Mlambo, when she learned a few years ago that she had breast cancer she became so frightened.
Although she’s well into remission, she remembers how much emotion she carried with her after being diagnosed with cancer.
“A range of emotions ran through my mind, I was afraid thinking who will take care of my young children if I die now. I felt sad and angry that why did it happen to a young woman like me. At the same time my future was filled with uncertainty, I was in denial and confused. In fact I went numb when the doctor told me that I had breast cancer.
But the good news is, I am alive today,” she said.
Mlambo is one woman who managed to be cured from breast cancer because it was detected early.
Every year, 1,38 million women across the world are diagnosed with breast cancer. It is important to be wary of the common signs and symptoms of breast cancer.
According to research the common symptoms of breast cancer include a lump or thickening in or near the breast or in the underarm that persists through the menstrual cycle.
Women are encouraged to look out for changes in the size, shape, or contour of the breast, blood-stained or clear fluid discharge from the nipple, change in the feel or appearance of the skin on the breast or nipple (dimpled, puckered, scaly, or inflamed), redness of the skin on the breast or nipple, a change in shape or position of the nipple.
Other signs include the development of a marble-like hardened area under the skin, an area that is distinctly different from any other area on breast, tingling, itching, increased sensitivity, burning in pain in the breast or nipples, unexplained weight loss as well as persistent fever or chills.
While there are certain risk factors, including age, family history, and hormone use, ultimately anyone of any gender with breast tissue is susceptible to the disease. A message shared by most women survivors of breast cancer is that doing monthly self-examinations can mean early detection, and a quicker recovery.
In a recent zoom meeting a representative from the Cancer Association of Zimbabwe, Lovemore Makurirofa, said breast cancer was not beyond us, meaning we do have the capabilities to fight breast cancer.
“Even though as a country we might have some challenges in regards managing breast cancer as individuals we believe we have that inherent power to fight breast cancer. So it is not beyond us,” said Makurirofa.
He added: “Globally breast cancer is common among females. All women should be screened regardless of their age because we are seeing women as young as 15 and women above 70 getting breast cancer. Breast cancer is one of the cancers that are diagnosed late yet as compared to other cancers such as cervical cancer, with breast cancer you can pick some of the symptoms early and can be diagonesed at stage two or three.”
Makurirofa highlighted that there were worrying trends whereby 80 percent of people were getting diagnosed very late.
He said that with breast cancer most of the signs and symptoms were not painful so people could ignore it until it becomes a wound.
“We just want to encourage one another that early detection is important because it saves lives. Cancer needs to be detected early because if it’s given time to spread throughout the body it becomes very difficult to cure and affects other vital organs, such as the lungs and liver.
It will also be very costly since it would have spread to other vital organs. If a cancer reaches stage four it means that the immune system is already compromised. This is the reason why some treatments get postponed,” said Makurirofa.
“Women should be able to do self breast examinations. Breast self-exam, or regularly examining your breasts on your own, can be an important way to find a breast cancer early, when it’s more likely to be treated successfully.
While no single test can detect all breast cancers early, we believe that performing breast self-exam in combination with other screening methods can increase the odds of early detection,” he added.
Health experts have repeatedly emphasised to make self examination a routine. The more one examines their breasts, the more they will learn about them and it becomes easier to tell if something has changed.
