By Marinos Pavlikas *:
Flora Markou is an example of a fight against cancer.
At the age of 57 she has walked her own endless Golgotha, she has fought the incurable disease three times and both of them came out victorious. But once she came out of the fight betrayed when she lost her ten-year-old angel.
Flora Markou's optimistic character but also her intense involvement with the public, was the medicine that relieved her, as she says, from the physical and mental pain
She is one of those people who have the rare gift to transmit an inexhaustible optimism and a sincere appreciation for all the big and small that life has given her. Mrs. Flora Markou, from Sotira, at the age of 56 has walked her own endless Golgotha, has fought the incurable disease three times and both came out victorious, but once she came out of the fight betrayed when she lost her ten-year-old angel . Nevertheless, she is an example of mental romance and heroism for every cancer patient with her optimistic attitude towards life but also the way in which she has struggled with the hardships of life.
The losses
The first thing you notice when you meet her is the permanently painted authentic smile on her face. A smile that deceives you, believing that this woman was lucky not to be tortured in her life. Everything else, though. In 1978 her first child is born. At the age of seven, however, little Maria will be diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in the brain. He gave the unequal battle for three years and died on the day of the feast of the Apostle Andrew in 1988, at the age of ten.
The loss of ten-year-old Maria was the first blow in Mrs. Flora's life. But she had to stand on her own two feet to raise her second child, then 6-year-old Georgia. The loss of a child, Mrs. Flora describes, is a wound that never heals. 29 years have passed since then, but not a single day has passed without visiting Maria at her last home and lighting her candle.
The separation
The loss of her child is followed a few months later by the separation from her husband. A separation that, as she admits, arose after the difficulties that followed the death of her eldest daughter. Flora Markou stands on her feet again to raise their second daughter. Georgia grows up alone without a father, but with a mother who carried the cross of loss and separation. In a small society of the 90's that, as she says, hardly accepted the single-parent model of the family.
Fearing social outcry, he says, he is forced, as he says, not to offer generously what a parent offers to his child, especially during the childhood of 35-year-old Georgia, when Mrs. Flora preferred to avoid walks, to protect herself from his critical eyes of the world. At the same time, she tried and found a job so that she could offer financial support to herself and her only child.
The fight against the incurable disease
In 2000 Georgia left for studies at the Department of Business Administration of the University of Patras. One year later, in August 2001, Mrs. Flora was diagnosed with breast cancer. A new Golgotha will begin. Georgia interrupts her studies to provide full support to her mother. On August 27, he undergoes surgery, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center. The painful treatment lasted six whole months.
During all this time he did not put it down. He continued to work normally, while, as he states, each session at the Oncology Center was followed by a whole week of pain and physical fatigue. Nevertheless, despite her frequent absences and the great suffering she suffered from the treatment, both her employers and her colleagues showed her an unprecedented support, for which she is still grateful.
In 2013, at the site of the previous operation, she identified a new tumor. He visits the Oncology Center again, where he will be diagnosed with a hormonal type of cancer. He undergoes another operation in August 2013 and a new cycle of chemotherapy, which he successfully completes again.
Balsam the engagement with the public
Flora Markou's optimistic character, but also her intense involvement with the public, was the medicine that relieved her, as she says, of both physical and mental pain. Present at every event in her Municipality, Sotira, she leads the public as President of the Choir and the Dance Club of the Municipality of Sotira and an active member of the Municipal Volunteer Group.
She participates as a volunteer in cancer awareness events, while she is the flag bearer of both the Pancyprian Association of Cancer Patients and Friends, and the Cyprus Anti-Cancer Association. He is often invited to inspire cancer patients who are mainly in the early stages of cancer, while he regularly participates in the Christodoulas March in the province of Famagusta.
Motivation for life
This involvement with the public and volunteering, as well as the insistence on continuing to work, offered her, as she states, the motivation to continue struggling to stay alive. Her daily struggle became easier thanks to her socializing with other people, thanks to the charity offer but also thanks to the arrival last year of her first grandchild, Evangelos, who is today for her the biggest balm in her heart. Despite the unequal struggle with the incurable disease, despite the loss of the child and the loss of her husband, Flora Markou fought with dignity and emerged victorious. Winner of life and example of militancy and optimism in the face of any difficulties of life.
In the fight…
Relevant and the little poem he wrote, and which he recites at every cancer awareness event or to other cancer patients:
"I caught a message to go to war
And I will definitely beat cancer again
Those of you who are worried that he will not win
Yes, they found a good citizen and his glory is fading.
Those who fish, yes, I can do it
Yes, if you are next to you as I want it ".
SIMERINI newspaper of Sunday (27/8/2017)