Home Features “This is not the end; I will fight this” – breast...
By Lakhram Bhagirat
Cancer is one of the diagnoses every person dreads, because it is akin to receiving a death sentence. So, when Alicia Sugrim was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer, she went through a flurry of emotions. Alicia was angry, heartbroken and sad, but she also knew that she had the choice to either fight or give up. She chose the former, and began her battle with breast cancer just over a month ago. 
“We had to just make decisions on the spot, because I have three children and I didn’t want to make a wrong decision where they would have to suffer, because they need me at this point,” the 35-year-old mother of three said during an interview with Sunday Times.
Starting from the beginning, Alicia told Sunday Times that she was born and raised in the West Bank Demerara (WBD) village of Patentia, where she still resides with her husband and three children – aged 14, 7 and 4.
Her childhood was filled with great memories of her parents and other family members. She spent much of her childhood playing with her cousins and learning life skills from her parents, and it is those skills that she credits for helping her through this period of her life.
“I use that (those life lessons) to get by daily now, because…the teachings of my father (are) on basically what to expect from life, and how to deal,” she said.
With no family history of cancer, Alicia discovered a lump in her right breast, and decided to go get it checked out. Her doctor did a breast examination and a subsequent ultrasound, and advised her on his findings. After being told that the lump is potentially cancerous, she visited another doctor, and he recommended a biopsy of the lump, to determine whether it was cancerous or not.
“When we were called back for the results, he told me that it’s malignant cancer, and it’s very aggressive because it’s already spread into the lymph nodes. So, the option that he gave me there is to have a mastectomy done, because they don’t want to risk it to spread further. He said it was stage three.
“Yeah, the thing with all of this is not like I had time to process what was going on. Everything just happened like one after the next; very fast. We had no time to think, we had no time to do research, we had no time, no time at all; and I was scared, I was so scared,” she said.
Alicia received her diagnosis on August 14, 2021, and underwent a mastectomy on September 09, wherein her right breast was removed. It has been a painful recovery for her ever since, but she is pushing through with the support of her family and friends.
She was referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) to have her surgery done, but because of the pandemic and vaccination measures, she was having a hard time in securing a date for the procedure. Because of the aggressive nature of her cancer, Alicia needed to have her surgery done as early as possible, so, with the financial assistance of her parents, she was able to accumulate enough funds to have surgical intervention at a private medical institution.
“What I was looking at also is that I was scared of not only the overcrowding at the Georgetown Hospital, but I was scared of the COVID situation; so, I wanted to be safe at all costs,” she disclosed.
Alicia has been recovering, and she visited her doctor yesterday to have the staples removed. Her doctors are to decide on the next course of action in relation to her treatment.
“I have to go back to the Cancer Institute sometime soon, and I think it would be probably next week or so. I have to get a referral to go back to the Cancer Institute, to do some bloodwork and other tests in order for them to know how if to start chemotherapy. I am hoping that will happen sometime by mid-October,” Alicia related.
Despite the tremendous support system Alicia has, there are times when she completely breaks down. Fighting cancer is not an easy fight, because we can never truly understand how exactly someone battling cancer feels.
“My family is there for me 100 per cent, and more so my husband. The support I get from him, oh my God, I don’t know what I will do, because I have moments where I break down. I have moments where I would melt down, and he’s always there to encourage me that we will get through it and it’s not the end of it.
After doing this mastectomy, honestly, when I go in front of the mirror and I look at myself, it’s like it crushes me to know how did I become like this. It’s a touchy issue to deal with, but I get the words of encouragement from everyone around me, and I think that’s what motivates me to keep pushing and going,” she explained.
The society’s stigma with cancer has also not helped Alicia, because after her surgery, she was faced with persons looking at her breast and not at her.
“But I embrace it, because if I had to do that to save my life…, I would do it. If I had to get rid of both, I don’t mind, I would have done it, because all I want is to live. I think people need to get a better view of what cancer really is, because it’s not a death sentence. Early detection is important, and that’s why we need to…make our health a priority.
“Most Guyanese, as a whole, we only wait until we have an ache or pain to go to the doctor to get a checkup. Check on your body. See what’s going on with your body, because you don’t know what’s going on with you, and you have something in there that’s harming your body. So, people need to prioritise their health, do their checkup, and that way you could have early detection,” she declared.
