The first question – Rona – asked was, “am I going to die?” it was July 2, 2019. I was alone in Qatar and had just been diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.

My family was in the Philippines, which is where I am from, and not only was I all alone in Qatar, I was the breadwinner, Illness was not acceptable. my oncologist prepared a treatment plan for me and because I wanted to live and I wanted to fight, I listened very carefully for what he wanted me to do and I followed everything. This is my story:

Before moving to Qatar, I lived in Bahrain from 2017 to 2019. I felt like there was something wrong earlier in 2019, but when I went to the doctor in Bahrain he told me it was just a hormonal imbalance and it was normal. So I just took it. I didn’t have the chance to come to the hospital so my disease progressed.

In 2019 I got a job in Doha. even before I got my diagnosis, I already expected that I might have cancer, maybe even stage 4. I had all the signs: a lump, oozing blood, foul smell, and discoloration. Once I got settled in, I went directly to the hospital. I had waited for so long and the first time I stepped into the emergency room and they put the patient bracelet on my wrist I was in tears.

At Hamad they gave me a mammogram and biopsy, then I had a CT scan. They were very thorough and finally I got a diagnosis, the doctors at the hospital explained that Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is invasive, which means that although the cancer started in my breast it had “metastasized” or spread beyond my breast and nearby lymph nodes to other parts of my body, like my bones and liver. the cancer team wanted me to go for six cycles of chemotherapy. After that my treatment plan included surgery and radiation.

On that day it was impossible for me to fully consider my diagnosis and what I was facing. I also wondered about the price of all this treatment. thankfully, Qatar Cancer Society exists. they gave a donation to fund my battle with cancer.

In spite of my doubts, I told myself the fight would start now,  I was very thankful to God that he gave me a chance to fight, to live. he directed people to help me and I am so thankful to them.

My treatment began right away, I had my first chemotherapy session that same month and I had a bad reaction. the medication I was given would make me shake. I had a bad reaction to the second cycle as well. and then every time I had chemo they would send me to the hospital for four or five days because I would be very sick. my white blood cell count would drop, sometimes to critical levels.

During chemo I often felt like I was suffocating, they couldn’t change my medication; however, they could minimize it. By the third, fourth, fifth, sixth cycles of chemo I had no more reactions. After six cycles of chemotherapy and I was done. The chemo was really hard; emotionally it’s just grueling. I don’t know why but I was always crying, imagine: there is no pain but it’s like you want to cry and cry and cry , you’re exhausted. You can’t eat. at the clinic where patients take chemotherapy, there is a big room with curtain dividers, sometimes I would draw, sometimes I would just listen to music, I met another Filipina patient there, who like me didn’t tell her family everything at first.

When I finally did tell my family, it was one of the hardest parts about my cancer journey, Coming out to them with my diagnosis radically altered our relationship. we became closer, before I told them, we would never speak every day. Instead, if there was time I would call them or they would call me, but now they were worried, and every day they were calling me, asking how I felt. I would say, “really fine. Don’t worry,” my grandmother was especially concerned because she is old now. It’s strange. I’m the only person in the family with breast cancer. I underwent the genetic test for the breast cancer gene and it was negative.

Although the chemotherapy was tough, I often felt stronger than before. the doctors would joke with me, they would say ,“you’re just pretending to have cancer!” because I kept myself upbeat and never really looked sick. I had the feeling that I was still blessed because Allah loved me.

I know very well that it’s hard for a stage 4 cancer patient to survive, but I stayed positive; I just acted normal. I would tell myself, “I don’t have any illness. I am the same person I was before this. I need to stay happy,” I did miss my eyebrows though. I really love makeup and fashion; creating art and doing makeovers are great joys for me.

Also I sometimes felt that I wanted to visit some places and do things that I had never tried in my life before,  I wanted to experience crazy things like surfing and mountain climbing and have some extraordinary adventure before my life came to an end.

But more than anything I would remember my four kids. they are still small and don’t understand everything, I started to think, how will they go to school? How will they eat? where will they live? my husband is not a stable provider, and I was raised by my grandmother, because my mother went abroad to work, my parents were just people that I saw on social media, never in person. That meant I knew what it was like not to have someone beside you when you are growing up, and what it’s like to live in different houses. It’s really hard to deal with, and that was the first thing that came to my mind—I didn’t want my kids to be separated from each other and grow up in different places, my children stay with my grandmother and I rent a small house for them and give them what they need. They were what I held onto throughout my treatment, they were what I lived for.

Once my chemo finished in December, I knew the following month I would have the next stage of my treatment—surgery, the day of my surgery was supposed to be January 29, 2020. On January 25^th, I was at work when the breast clinic coordinator called me and said that the doctor wanted me to come in the evening for admission. She told me to come that night because the next day would be my surgery. It was a really shocking moment, but I was excited too because I had been waiting for the surgery a long time and I knew this was a significant part of my treatment. They completely removed one breast. I accepted this and more than anything I still felt lucky because I was alive.

After my surgery the medical team was amazed because about two hours post-surgery I strolled down to the coffee shop, I started to move around like I was normal and nothing happened. I joked to the nurses that “oh, so forever really does mean nothing! Even my breast left me!” we all had a good laugh about that. I stayed in the hospital for three days to give my body time to recover.

Throughout everything I tried to stay happy, I would sing. I would video blog, my vlog is about my cancer journey and about all aspects of my treatment: injections, life in the hospital (the food is pretty good!), treatments, and how people helped me, I have become mature enough and learned how to deal with the situation positively so I wanted to show people that even though I had MBC, I could still do so much and that it wasn’t the end of the world. We have to fight and not lose hope.

Cancer is not a one-person journey and I am thankful for the help I received. My auntie and grandmother were there for me, my friends in Qatar would take me out to the sea because I am a nature lover, Also my work supported me , they didn’t let me get tired, they gave me low-stress assignments and sick leave. I am also so thankful to the Qatar Cancer Society for their support.

My faith has helped me a lot too because if not for my faith, I might think that “I can’t survive this ,”but I know Allah loves me and that’s why he gave me this challenge,  So I trusted him. I trusted that this would pass and I had to be strong. If I had to advise anyone going through the same thing, I would say, “remember this is just temporary. One day it will end. Just be positive and stay strong and have faith in God.

On April 12, 2020, I completed my radiotherapy treatment, the histology reported no residual malignancy in my breast tissue or lymph nodes. I am now cancer free.

Now I would tell the doctors a message “just be patient with your patients. Try to give them hope, and My wish for myself for ten years from now would be to be able to help people who are in the situation I was in.

 

Rona Mahera Elsherif’s vlog can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl2EJYa8L-EP4HsbgcMJ1_A/featured

Steve, an English professor at the Community College of Qatar, describes his cancer experience in a positive light. His journey began when he noticed he had some issues with voiding and went to see a doctor at a local clinic for a check-up. Thinking it would just be an enlarged prostate (non-threatening enlargement of the prostate gland), since it was a common condition in men his age, Steve had no worries. The doctor, however, requested a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. The test results indicated a high PSA. Steve then went to see a urologist who did further testing, including an MRI and a biopsy. The tests confirmed that he had a cancerous lesion on his prostate, but much to Steve’s relief, the doctor thought that the cancer likely was not an aggressive type.  Sadly, Steve’s relief did not last long. His biopsy specimen was sent on to a pathologist in Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) for confirmation. The second opinion indicated that the cancer was actually more aggressive and dangerous than initially thought. The news left Steve devastated.

Steve, living alone in Qatar, away from home and support, made coping with the diagnosis of prostate cancer that much more difficult. “It was just me, the world and death,” is how Steve described this brief but dark time in his life.  He did not have much of a support system or anybody he could really talk to in Doha.  However, this darkness was soon to end.  He came across a friend of a friend whom he had met a few years back.  He described this person as very kind and empathetic. Seeing as she was a yoga instructor, she encouraged Steve to start practicing yoga and to change his lifestyle.  Steve was more than happy to live a healthier lifestyle: “I wanted to be disciplined. I wanted to make every effort.” He stopped drinking and even stopped smoking; “I thought I would never be able to stop smoking, but it wasn’t hard once my mind was made up. I was so determined to adjust my thinking, to adjust my way of life, to live in a healthy way.” Steve also cut out meat from his diet and lost 10 kilos. On top of cleansing his body by changing his diet and letting go of harmful habits like smoking, he began cleansing his mind by dedicating a certain time every night for yoga, meditation, and contemplation.

As time passed and the date of the surgery got closer and closer, Steve continued to prepare himself. He started educating himself on his prostate disease: “I read like crazy. I read and I read and I read… every imaginable aspect of this cancer.” As part of his pre-surgical orientation, he was introduced to three other men who were going to have the same operation at the same time.  Steve connected with one man in particular in his surgical cohort. They would talk about the role of spirituality and shared their feelings and experiences together.  Being among a group of people going through the same experience as he made him feel a bit more at ease.

Albeit very painful for a couple of days afterwards, the surgery went smoothly and Steve recovered very quickly without any side effects and was released from the hospital three days later.  As Steve recovered in his apartment, he took on a new hobby: painting with acrylics. This was quite unusual and surprising for him since he never had an urge to paint in his life. Painting became his escape from his otherwise dull environment. He described painting as a wonderful outlet to express himself because there was a lot going on inside of him.  He loved blending bright colors and felt a tremendous rejuvenation explaining that “I needed to do something creative. I needed color around me.” He redecorated his entire apartment making it a lot more interesting and colorful. He changed the rugs, some  furniture, and even put some of his own paintings on the walls. Steve also developed a close affinity with plants and constantly wanted to be around them. He would take frequent walks to local gardens and let the plants bathe him with their energy. “It was something spiritual… something from God. I felt like I was tapped on the shoulder: ‘Pay attention. You have this gift of life. Use it.”

Steve’s story is a very inspiring one. It teaches you that strength comes from within, a ray of hope emerges from darkness , although the presence of family and friends in your life at times of hardship can add a lot of comfort, all you really need is yourself. You are capable of changing your life,  Steve’s advice to cancer patients is to be proactive, “Take control of your own health, You can change your life ,  be actively involved in your disease, its treatment, and especially the healing because nobody cares more than you do. It’s your life and it’s your health.”

The ultrasound is not enough to rule out malignancy and a biopsy is needed”. This is how the story of Fatima Jomha, a 33-year-old breast cancer survivor, started.  In April 2017, the biopsy revealed cancerous cells.

“I was lost. I was told that I have cancer, but I didn’t know what that means. You know the meaning of cancer, you know it because you have heard about it before, but when it happens to you it is different. I was surprised and shocked to hear the surgeon’s words. He said it straight away in a tone that lacked compassion: ‘you have cancer.’ I didn’t have a family history of cancer and when you don’t have it you tend to not think about it. You think it can happen to other people but not you, but it happens, and this is where the initial shock comes from. It was emotionally hard to accept the diagnosis. I started crying. I was crying without thinking because of all the things that you hear about cancer. I was in denial. I went from one doctor to another to another hoping for something different. But this is how you come to accept. Then you just have to rely on God and what he has planned for you and be the strongest you can for your family and your kids.

Going through this journey, you start asking, who else is going through this? You start asking in your community and they answer you. They tell you the success stories of women  who went through the same circumstances as you and they survived and you also survive and tell your story to others, You find strength in other people’s stories. This is what I’m trying to do now for the newly diagnosed patients because I know it is hard, but just know that there is hope and there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. I know that you don’t think this all will pass right away. This is because when you are going through it and you are feeling that tiredness and the transition from being a person who is not going through these procedures to a person who is going every single day to the hospital – that’s a big thing. I used to never go to the hospital and then I had to go; for example, during radiation, every single day and then chemo, and through chemo you have to be very careful and so initially going through this process you don’t have the strength.

My message to everyone going through this is to find a person who you can confide in and hopefully they will give you the strength to go on. This is one of the reasons why I’m happy with the Qatar Cancer Society because they have an advocacy program that provides support to patients dealing with breast cancer.

For me, my family were the source of my strength. Without my family’s support I don’t think I could have gone through it. My husband was very supportive, and my family came all the way from Canada to support me – my mom, dad, all my sisters and brothers were with me if I needed anything. They would prepare my food and take care of my nutritious diet because you will need somebody to help you be the strongest and actually fight any side effect and anything that would happen along the way through chemo and radiation because your body is weaker and you need help in every way: psychologically and physically and everything, including your diet. They were there for me when I went to procedures and I needed people to take care of my kids who were too young to know the meaning of what was happening. They would see the things around them. For example, if they saw my hair falling out, they would be scared and say, ‘please mom don’t show us that you don’t have hair, just cover it’. But you just have to teach them that there is something happening, and you have to deal with it and move on because life is full of ups and downs and this is one of the downs. You have to learn how to teach them that your mom is sick right now just for that period of time and that she will be better. During the treatment, I felt like I can’t be there for my children because I was weak and not feeling well, but in my mind it was only for a period of time and I’m going to move on from this – it’s just going to be in the past. You cannot keep thinking about it and asking why this happened to me, because when this happens, you have to go through the procedure and hopefully through prayers, diet and everything else you go through it and it becomes something in the past. I know that when someone tells you that you have cancer you think that you don’t have much time to live, but right now how they treat cancer is different than how they used to treat it a long time ago and they are managing all the side effects well.

Don’t think that cancer is a death warning; just do what your doctor is telling you to do as it all backed up by research, so try to find a doctor that you feel comfortable with and one who gives you the confidence that this treatment is the right one for you and always try to be strong for yourself, for your children and for your family.

When my doctor first proposed the treatment plan to me, I refused the chemotherapy, but they said you have to do it because you’re young and the cancer is aggressive, and you have to do surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. I agreed to everything, but not to the chemo therapy and the doctor started to laugh and said if I was his child, he would definitely persuade me to do chemo because it gives you a high rate of survival and it gives you the chance to live longer and he presented to me the statistics related to the type and stage of my cancer and after that I agreed and I did everything. It was not easy and every time that the nurse came to give me the chemo I would start to cry because I felt hopeless at that time, but she gave me hope. She would say that she sees cancer patients all the time and that I would get through this. When you’re in the treatment room, you are fighting all these feelings. As a patient, I started asking myself what is happening to me, am I going to live, is this really going to work? I had too many feelings. But I came to realize that if you’re happier and more relaxed while taking your treatment, it will work better for you. Something that somebody told me is that God chooses the people that he knows can withstand this problem and not just anybody, and that this is a test for that person and so if they pass the test, they get closer to God and gain more deeds. This thought kept me going. I tried to think of it as a gift from God and not a curse.

In the first year after finishing the surgery, chemo and radiation – with all of this being new to your body, your body is trying to get used to it. What I learned is that when you’re in the moment you feel like you’re going to feel like this for the rest of your life – going to feel awful and with all the medications and the chemicals that they put in you, but then there is a transition phase that happened to me and it happens to all cancer patients and it is when you’re done with all the treatments and you’re trying to find yourself and going back to your normal self this is really hard – because your body is fighting all the new things that happened to it and you’re trying to find yourself and you are thinking I have to get back to how I used to be before – you just have to find a place where you’re comfortable and it is not easy and it can last for 1 or 2 years, but when you get there that is it, that is the beginning of your life again. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. You will feel better. And every time you think that things will not get better, just remember that it will – but your body needs time to get used to all the things that happened to you and when you’re past that stage, just work on yourself to become the person that you want to be and have a plan for yourself and work on your goals – because when you reach those goals you’ll feel even better and you’ll feel like a normal person again. This is what happened to me. I went through this transition stage and now I am back to normal. At this point I am a public speaker and raising awareness. In the past I wouldn’t think that I would be doing that, but now after the transition period and the fighting I am here, and I am spreading hope to people.

The thing that I’m most proud of is that I emerged from being a cancer patient to breast cancer advocate and this is my biggest achievement in my whole life. I’m a pharmacist, but this is my biggest achievement. I am now doing research in the field of breast cancer.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday is the best day of the week, ply football game with family, eat together, laughing, smiles and joking all the time, what is a happy days .. But why my friend looking at me with amazement?

During this time Anthony found himself looking at his friends intently, and telling him, “Today your face looks more yellow than ever before, and he joked that he did not care, said“ Maybe it means that my face is tanned as a result of sun exposure which made it golden, but his friends  reminded him again that last month he was suffering from shortness of breath more than one time and his body was exhausted .. and they advised him that he should go to see the doctor.

At first Anthony laughed with his colleagues, but soon he understood the matter, wondering his condition, “But what if the matter was serious … and my face really tends to yellow? Then I have to go to the doctor, and indeed he went to the health center with his mother who stands next to him, saying “It must be a short visit that will not exceed thirty minutes,” and Anthony did not know at the time  would not lead him to his home again before three months spent between various laboratory tests and ultrasound examinations and other things, to know that it was not just anemia, to lead his intelligence spirit to search for Google even gets ready to hear the news that he did not expect, which is “having blood cancer”, and my message to everyone is to alert them to their body signs before it is too late.

It is now 2 am, my head is heavy, my body is tired, but I want to take a rest… I rest? … It is a dream, I woke up to the doctor’s sounds talking around me, explaining the diagnosis, discussing the signs and reviewing treatment options. And they said: You are still young, and full of energy, and strength, your body will be able to defeat cancer, you will overcome this condition and regain your health.

After hearing this news, what I read from google, I look around to see all my family standing beside me, my mother, my father … my sister, my uncle, my aunts and my cousins – everyone is there to encourage me.

Anthony began preparing for the first round of the chemotherapy phase, where his hair seemed to fall out, one hair after another. It is a difficult journey, but he has to adapt to it, as each session of chemotherapy takes some time to accept it and gradually adjusts to it, hoping that his hair follicles will grow again to spread hope In his future life and his victory over cancer.

He was feeling nauseous, and the stomach upset gradually increased until it reached the mouth. He became impatient and with weak physical strength, but he endured all these pains in order to return to his normal life again to build his physical muscles and his bright future that he derived from the warmth and tenderness of his family and the embrace of his father ,, this embrace returns his soul and soul .. Any person needs this love, warmth and tenderness to be full of strength and enthusiasm and raise his spirits.

At exactly five o’clock every morning a new story and innovative methods in which everyone around me master to help me get through these difficult times, “It is really difficult times.” At five o’clock every morning, taking a blood sample is the frequent thing that I get used to do every day, to let it slip with the help of Nurse Ibrahim He is my friend, companion, and guide throughout this journey, get ready to eat the “kibbeh” my mom prepared for me, because it is better than the usual hospital food. Then a contest is held with my sister to see who can drink a bottle of water faster than the other, if your goal is to drink 3 liters of water a day that needs a lot of creativity. This is followed by an exciting match with best friends in the FIFA game. It was never defeated. I enjoyed these beautiful things that bring me happiness and help me pass the time with more faith and courage.

During the six successive chemo sessions, it seemed to me that I was stronger, bigger and wiser, this was another chapter in life, and I started to feel better and return to my normal self, I had enough time to think about how to restore my normal life again after everything stopped, life goes on and did not end But it needs more, looking forward to your future, and building lasting long-term relationships with your friends and family; They are the ones who will help you regain your energy and brilliance. It is better to think about your school program and in which direction you will go, you have to think about the sky in which you will fly when you become a pilot, and do not let cancer eat you. Take this time to improve and think.

Oh yeah, it’s time to go to the gym