Breast cancer awareness is reaching a peak in Nigeria today
with various funds being created for sufferers. Actress Juliet Aguwa was very
popular in soap operas including ‘Memorial hospital’ and ‘Twist away’. But she
moved to America with her husband. She is back in Nigeria with a story to tell.
Over the past three years she had battled with breast cancer and had been faced
with the very dreadful chemotherapy treatment. She lost her hair, her skin went
pale but her will to live remained intact. She is working on an awareness
campaing for the disease that almost took her life. She spoke with Hazeez
Balogun recently.
You are were
diagnosed with breast cancer and you survived. Many people will just keep the
ordeal to themselves you decided to all out.
Yes, I know about the stigma, but I do not want cancer to be
seen as a curse but a disease, and the sooner we get to know more about it the
better and easier it is to fight it. I was sincere with what I was going
through because I know other people were also
going through the same thing.
You featured in some
soap opera before in some year back then you disappeared.
I did not really disappear. I moved to the United States.
Let me tell you a bit of myself. I was born in Imo State on October 2, 1973,
but I grew up in the North- Niger State. Dad passed away when I was 7 years old
so I was raised by my mother. I attended FGGC. Owerri for 3 years and then I
transferred to FGGC Bida, where I finished in 1991.
After Secondary school, I studied theatre arts at the
University of Portharcourt, Nigeria, West Africa. After graduation, I pursued
acting for a while, appearing in several TV series and Talk Shows on NTA,
Lagos, including drama series, Twist Away and Memorial Hospital.
I also served and worked with the NTA, Lagos under the
Management of Mallam Danladi Bako and Mr
Frank Olize till Sept. 1996, when I migrated to the USA to further my studies.
Now, I am an American Citizen living in Wisconsin.
So when did you find
out that you had breast cancer?
Two weeks before I found a lump in my left breast, my
husband Stan and I had gone for our yearly physical exams at a Hospital in
Michigan where we lived with our two beautiful daughters, Chigozie and Chisom. Everything turned out normal for
both of us. Two weeks later, I noticed the lump.
I thought it was leftover breast milk, because I had just
stopped breastfeeding my younger daughter. So I went back to the Hospital, and
after a series of tests, I was told to go for a biopsy where tissue from the
breast is removed and examined for signs of breast cancer.
By the time my husband and I went back for the biopsy
results, I had already done the crying, the anger, and the denial. I was young.
How could I have cancer? I didn’t have any family history of the disease. And I
just had about a few months left to graduate with a degree in Medical Case
Management.
When we got in to see the doctor, I watched her. She seemed
nervous, like she didn’t want to tell me what they had found. So even before
she said the words, I knew I had breast cancer. I was only 34.
I was diagnosed with Stage three aggressive breast cancer in
September of 2008. Within two months of my routine medical check. I can’t tell
you the shock and the disbelief of how my world spiralled out of control. The
moment I heard the word ‘cancer’, everything else went blank.
With the realisation
what came to your head?
I thought and acted like it was a death sentence, thoughts
of my little angels-my daughters and my
dear husband of five years , flooded my mind and I thought I’d drown in my
tears!
I ran a few more tests at the Hospital to confirm the extent
of damage and was advised the best treatment was to have a surgery, as the only
way forward. It was the hardest decision of my life at such a young age, when I
had so much plans for the future which included getting back into the movie
world eventually, a passion that I had long left behind due to marriage and
family but was constantly taunted by it.
How did your children
take the blow?
Telling my older daughter who was three and half years old
at the time was hard because she did not understand. We said, ‘’the bad guys
attacked mummy’s boobs, and we are trying to fight them’’. Well I braved up to
it and broke the news to my family, my mother was in Nigeria at the time, and
when I called her, I could tell she was in a great mood.
As an African did you
try any African remedy?
Well, I am more inclined to western medicine. So naturally I
had to sort out the doctors first. My mother was very worried and she flew down
with some herbs. I asked my doctor if it was ok. He said, he was not against
it, but I should allow him to finish with his treatment first. Then if I think
it is the best thing to do, then I can go ahead. Thank God, it did not get to
that level.
What about spiritual
help, like faith healers?
I believe in God a lot, but I will not sit in one place and
expect to be healed. He is the one who works with the doctors. So through them
I am healed.
The treatment must
have been very expensive
Well, that I cannot really put together. As a US citizen,
with a health plan, it was all done for free. I was well covered. But I know
that the procedure was an expensive one to do.
How did your family
fare?
Surgery and ongoing chemotherapy and radiation made it become
so hard for me to care for my lovely daughters, who were then, 3yrs and
18months. I felt that they were too young to grasp the whole ordeal and wanted
them to enjoy the leisure of being around other kids of their age especially,
the days my chemotherapy weighed me down. My medical facility (Froedtert
Medical College of Wisconsin) was very resourceful and excellent in assisting
me with some of my needs and made me feel hopeful towards the future.
So you were finally
released from hospital
Yes, the surgery is done, chemotherapy and radiation over,
though my body doesn’t quite feel like
it’s mine, sometimes due to the healing process but am positive and strong on
the fact that life holds so much more after these.
So it was a mixed and warming feeling when I heard those
words ‘’cancer free’’. Tears rolled down my eyes knowing that I was given
another chance of life to walk through the stages of life together with my
kids. I can only say that I am proud to be standing today.
Tell us about your
foundation
After I got better, I started an Organization called Courage
To Dare Foundation. Having gone through all the stages of cancer treatment and
emerging a survivor, I knew I had to do something for the thousands of people
all over the world who can’t access information and treatment.
I came to Lagos Nigeria to do research on cancer patients, I
talked to an oncologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba,
and she said that a lot of cancer patients come in after the disease has
reached an advanced stage. There, I was
trying to talk with cancer patients there and many didn’t want to talk to me.
It seemed that they were embarrassed about the fact that they had cancer.
Some of them said their families didn’t know, and they
didn’t want them to know. My Organization plans to go all over West Africa
empowering women to speak up about their condition and to seek help. Our lives
are stories we must tell to inspire the world and leave a legacy.
My legacy, I hope will be to inspire millions of people,
African women who seem to have lost hope that there could be life after the
diagnosis of cancer, and women in general, who like me, will change their death
sentences to a ‘’life worth living to the fullest’’.
You were on Oprah
Winfery show, how was the experience?
It is undescribable. I did not believe it. I received a call
inviting me to come, but I thought it was one of my friends playing a prank on
me. But the person persisted. I was invited as a guest on the Nov 16, 2010 Oprah
Winfrey Show, among an audience of individuals honoured for making a difference
in their communities. As a surprise to the audience and the invited guests, the
show ended up being Oprah Winfrey’s final ‘’Oprah’s Favorite Things Show’’. It
was a good experience and it has given a lot of credibility to our campaign.
This not only was overwhelming, but it gave a voice to all
the effort in trying to help Africans. Oprah’s Show has made me want to work
hard in partnering with other Organizations on the fight to ending the breast
cancer death rate in Africa, which is mostly due to neglect, abandonment, lack
of finances and awareness.
So you have left
acting for good?
No, I will always be in show business. I will always be in
modelling. I will continue to endorse products that affect people’s lives. One
of my biggest wish with my second chance to life will be to re-visit the acting
world again.
So how is life after
cancer?
These days, I feel as though breast cancer gave me a new
life. Before I had breast cancer, I worked hard on being a mother and a wife,
and I think one of the things I neglected most was me! So after cancer, I
decided that you only have one time to live your life. I want to go back to the
film industry. I am pursuing a master’s degree in public health in Wisconsin
where we live now.
I am also going to keep talking about breast cancer because
people have to know that being diagnosed with the disease doesn’t mean that
they are going to die, that with early detection and quick action, they can survive
breast cancer.
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