Nicoletta and Angeliki teach life lessons. They are a mother and a daughter, who overcame cancer and spoke to the online portal Ladylike.gr about the life lesson they taught, defeating breast cancer.
As Nicoletta described to the journalist, "In 2011 I caught something in my chest. I was 42 years old. I justified it and left it. I said it would pass. After a while, what I caught didn't go away, so I went for a mammogram. I went for the mammogram, they actually found something and referred me for an ultrasound. At first I took it for granted. I hadn't told anyone anything because I thought it would be a routine process, that I would take it off, finish it and go home. I went to a specialist mammologist, he examined me and told me that I had to have a mastectomy, not today, but yesterday. I went with a friend of mine, again very relaxed that something serious is not happening. This was followed by a puncture in Agios Savvas because I was told it was malignancy. When I heard the word malice, I was stunned. I never imagined it. It was as if they had emptied a bucket of ice water on my back.
The biopsy was positive and had to be removed immediately. That's when I got lost. The first thing I thought about was my family and how to tell them how much it would affect our lives. I thought about my job because I was in a very good professional phase and I knew I would have to brake. I didn't want to go home. I didn't want to face anyone. I was never afraid for my life. I never thought of myself. The only thing that shocked me was the mastectomy. The first week was very difficult in my mind.
Taking the results and knowing that I have cancer, I send a message to my brother and tell him that I want him to take my husband and come down to his house, without showing the children that something serious is happening. A little while later I was in front of them and I announced it to them. Developments are chain. You don't have time to think or analyze. There is no room, you get into all this and it goes by itself. The same night of the puncture, I found a doctor in Agios Savvas. I entered his office while 35 women were sitting outside waiting. He looks at my tests and immediately plans my surgery. Clearly. You are now setting other priorities in your life. After that I started to pay attention to the small and everyday. It was and still is important for me to wake up in the morning, open the window and see the sun. Cancer makes you tougher but also more sensitive at the same time. "
Nicoletta Candila is one of hundreds of women who have fought cancer equally and have not done him the favor of seeing them defeated. Weak yes, never surrendered. He fought him and won him over. Innate optimism. This is the most powerful medicine against it. He recounts what he lived through, as he would narrate in a journey he made a few years ago. That's kind of how he treats cancer. As a forced journey that arose but came into her life for a very specific reason. A little later this speech would fill the blue eyes with tears.
"It simply came to our notice then. "Why us" was the first phrase heard. I hadn't said anything to the children. I had hung up my exams in a chair and Angeliki picked them up and read them. "Why are you making fun of me. Your tests tell you cancer, why don't you tell us? ” All I want is to be upright for my children. Only that. Meanwhile, I'm learning that I won't have to have a mastectomy, so I feel a little better. We proceed to an octectomy and a part of my breast is removed.
The lymph nodes were metastasized, so they are removed and the fight begins. Chemotherapy and radiation. The fact that I did not have a mastectomy was a psychological relief. From the first moment I gather my team and I say that I have cancer. Everyone was next to me. I was one of the lucky ones who did not see their people move away but become more protective. My friends and relatives did not want to leave me alone. He was always close to me, I didn't feel on the sidelines for a moment. I never felt pity because I just never let it show that I'm not well. "
"Did you cry?" I ask spontaneously. "It simply came to our notice then. No matter how strong and optimistic you are, there are times when you bend over. I never cried in front of my children. " With absolute composure. As if everything was following a prescribed course. Like an innocent cold that had to go around. Fear; "I was never afraid of dying. Not once did I think about it. I will overcome it and my life will continue. That's all I was saying and believing. I wouldn't put it down. I wouldn't let cancer suck my life. I would fight him to the end. In the first three chemotherapies I did not change anything in my daily life. Then came unbearable pain. I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't get to the bathroom. I suffer physically. "
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