News

Cancer survivor strives to battle stigma after losing both breasts

Friday, February 3rd, 2023 07:20 | By
Breast cancer survivor. PHOTO/Courtesy

It is a story of hope beyond hope. An inspiration, a fight and dedication to behold is what Millicent Orwa’s struggle with breast cancer is all about.

She lost both her breasts to the dreaded cancer and rejected doctors’ proposal to terminate her pregnancy as they struggled to treat the illness.

Orwa was 28 years old and full of life when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Losing her breasts to cancer has not deterred her resolve to inspire others and continue with relentless hope of overcoming the disease.

It all started in 2018 when she noticed a small lump in her breast, which she quickly dismissed as a passing cloud.

“I assumed it was just a swelling that would go away,” a jovial Orwa said.

In an interview with People Daily, Orwa said she did not panic as the swelling was not painful. “I knew it would disappear within days,” she explains.

Her hopes, however, started to diminish as the lump continued to grow, compelling her to seek medical attention. After undergoing a series of tests, the news came; she had cancer.

“It felt like a bad dream. I felt like it was torture,” she recalls.

For Orwa, family and friends came in handy and provided emotional support to overcome the news.

She was immediately put on chemotherapy and did five sessions at Coast General Hospital in Mombasa.

According to her, the treatment was expensive and her National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) card could not cater for everything. “I needed drugs that were going for Sh150,000 but NHIF could only pay Sh25,000,” she notes.

While undergoing treatment, she tested positive for pregnancy, another cause for worry.

When doctors noticed that she was pregnant, they told her to terminate the pregnancy if she was to continue with the chemotherapy sessions. She was caught between a rock and a hard place. On one hand she was eager to hold her baby.

However, on the flip side, she knew something could go wrong with the baby if she continued with the chemotherapy sessions.

Counselling sessions

“I knew I was not going to end the life of my baby and declined to abort as suggested by the doctors,” she explains.

It would take her about a month to convince the doctors that she had decided to keep the pregnancy.

“I refused to terminate the pregnancy. We debated for almost a month but I still refused. I was put on several counselling sessions to see if I could change my mind but I said no,” she holds.

In 2019, Orwa underwent a successful breast removal surgery at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital. After the surgery, she had to endure another stint with chemotherapy. By then, her pregnancy was six months and each day she would ask whether her baby would survive the sessions.

She was in perpetual pain, and at some point contemplated backtracking on her decision and opting to terminate her pregnancy.

“I knew I had to remove the baby at seven months. A gynecologist also advised me to have the baby removed at seven months,” explains Orwa.

And when the baby was removed, it was in good health and weighed about two and half kilograms. She was not put in an incubator.

Another lump

Unlike other infants, the new born baby could not be breast fed.

Although her baby was well, Orwa was not. Another lump with rashes had also shown on her right breast. Scans on the breast showed that the breast was also affected and had to be removed.

In July last year, she had to endure another surgery.

“The surgery was successful but I have now lost all my breasts,” she says.

For the last few months, Orwa reveals that she has been subjected to stigma even as she struggles to recover from the disease.

Orwa, however, state that she has had to develop a thick skin to handle people who have been mocking her for lacking breasts.

“I have been working as a customer care officer and I handle a lot of people daily. In a number of cases I have felt offended whenever they refer to me as “sir”,” she explains.

At home, her partner also left after he noticed that she had lost her other breast to cancer.

She says three of her relationships have ended because of her situation.

According to Dr Catherine Nyongesa, a clinical oncologist at Texas Cancer Centre, the exact cause of breast cancer is unknown.

When someone is pregnant while on chemotherapy, Nyongesa says there are high chances of miscarriage, fetal anomalies such as a child being born without limbs and other defects such as heart problems.

“One in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime and the commonest risk factors associated with breast cancer are genetics with other risk factors including hormone replacement therapy,” she explains.

More on News


ADVERTISEMENT