Cancer survivor shows determination to win
Lebogang Mosikare | Wednesday October 19, 2016 17:15
The student Olerato Mokgethiwa, 20, lives with breast cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy, which makes her to feel sleepy and vomit, but is determined to beat the cancer despite all the odds stacked against her.
Two years after being diagnosed with breast cancer, Mokgethiwa still has high hopes of one day completely healing from the cancer and still harbours an ambition of being a police officer.
She said doctors discovered she had breast cancer after a lump developed in her left breast.
“You take this journey to another land when going for treatments, and yet at the same time, you still have to live your life,” she said adding that; “my breast then enlarged and I went to the hospital where I was booked for an operation to remove the lump at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in February 2015. My breast was later removed in March 2015”. Mokgethiwa said she was put on chemotherapy in June and goes to the hospital every 21 days to receive treatment adding that she also received radiotherapy.
Mokgethiwa, in remission, still takes medication and goes for check-ups every three months.
“It is a different way of living in the world and I encourage others who find themselves in a similar situation not to lose hope and share their experience with the world that cancer is not a killer disease like most people believe,” she said.
So much about the treatment is clinical. It is hard work the medical people are doing. They have to be professional. “But I was not given proper medical care until my plight was posted on Facebook by people who learnt about my situation especially Jonathan Tembo and his loving wife. I am grateful for the Tembos because they also brought prophet Mositafa Robson Pahuwa from Zimbabwe to pray for me. I appreciate the help Pahuwa has given me because I found out that life has another meaning for me and I don’t have to give up but be brave to be cured of cancer”, she said.
Mokgethiwa would like to open a conversation with others about what it is like going through cancer treatment, to give people a way of talking about all the worries and fears they might have and the whole range of thoughts and feelings.
The cancer survivor thanks her schoolmates, who also bring her notes so that she is not left behind in her academics, for the emotional support that they have given her since she was diagnosed with cancer.
However, it may be double tragedy for the brave and kind-hearted Mokgethiwa after another lump was discovered in her right breast.
“The doctor has told me that they will remove the lump after I finish my chemotherapy. My left hand is not working properly and is a little bit painful in the joints. I was supposed to be attended by a physiotherapist but I have never been attended by one after I was diagnosed with cancer”, Mokgethiwa said.
Her uncle, Onalenna Mokgethiwa, described her niece as a God-fearing person who unlike some of her peers is not involved in immoral acts.
Olerato grew up in the church environment. “Her situation has greatly worried the family but we are very much hopeful that she would survive this because she believes in God”, the optimistic uncle said.