Carey Majid, KC. Executive Director of NL Human Rights Commission:
Sevtap Savas, PhD. Cancer scientist and advocate:
We thank the event organizers (Krista King, Sevtap Savas), all speakers and participants, event funder (Office of Public Engagement – Memorial University) and supporter (NLSUPPORT).
Our condolences to Robin’s family, friends, and the cancer community in Canada and beyond. Robin passed away from colorectal cancer in June 2024 after 14 years living with it . She was a fierce advocate and change-maker.
In this episode we talked with Robin and Hope Gillis about cancer, advocacy and coaching. It is one of a kind episode and hearing Robin speaks makes us even more determined to keep going. We have gigantic shoes to fill.
My name is Deanna Roy, I was diagnosed June 1st, 2018 with stage 4 HR2 positive metastatic breast cancer at the age of 42.
From St, John’s Newfoundland and my cancer journey is not a typical cancer journey in the way that I found out I had cancer.
Me and my best friend were out shopping. I left a local store to step down. From the sidewalk, I thought I tripped.
But later I found out my leg gave out, I could not get up so we had to call an ambulance. They brought me to the hospital, which was the Health Sciences, ‘cause that was the closest when I was there.
I went in Emerge. They gave me X-Ray, and then they said they were going to put me in surgery right away.
But it didn’t happen because something else showed up on the X-Ray, and then I had to go under another lot of tests. I was asked strange questions.
And later on that evening, in Emerge, I found out that I had breast cancer and that’s why when I stepped down, my knee and some of my tibia and other parts of my leg just, I guess, disintegrated.
Of course, they admitted me into the hospital. I had to have surgery, but I had to wait a week because they had to figure out how do they were going to do surgery.
And then, I found out that I had to have radiation and chemo.
It started. I only had to have 10 rounds of radiation so they started that while I was still in the hospital. I was in the hospital for 3 weeks. They had to reconstruct my leg.
And then after I left in the end of July, I started my cancer treatment, which was chemo.
I had to have so many rounds and that brought me until December of that same year, which I had to go every 3 weeks to get, and then after I was finished my chemo, I still had to get some treatments that was both to keep occurring for the rest of my life and plus I had to have a bone treatment as well to strengthen my bones.
But along this journey, I had many ups and downs.
And then, a year and a half ago I ended up with an infection in my leg.
They had it under control and then I shaved my leg and caused the hole and that caused the infection to start leaking.
And I had to go in and have 4 more surgeries on my leg and I was on very strong antibiotics.
And that would interfere with my treatment. So, I had to stop my treatments for total of 10 months.
Through the stoppage, and that, and after everything was clears and I could go back and see my oncologist, they did a CAT scan that showed that I had no cancer growth whatsoever. It was all clear, which you could not, because at the stage 4, it’s very hard to keep it under control.
But with all the treatment and stuff, now I don’t have to have any more treatment because the cancer is not growing. Every 3 months, I’ll just have a CAT scan and they’ll keep an eye on it until I need to start having some more treatment but hopefully it doesn’t come back.
I want to say this when you hear stage 4, you think it’s a death sentence. But it doesn’t have to be a death sentence. Go on and live your life the best way you can and keep a positive attitude. And, anything is possible you can beat anything and with my diagnosis, my average life span, which none of the doctors ever told me, was only as 3 years life expectancy. I’m almost going on my 6th year. So anything is possible.
I know it is hard but if there are people out there that can help you through it. You can go and you have family members.
You could talk to people and just share your story.
And another thing is all the professionals told me “Don’t go and research stuff online”, because it’s all negative and I took their voice. I never looked online to read anything.
I only started doing that probably around 4 years after, a couple of years ago, I just started looking up all the information because sometimes, there’s a lot of false information out and you don’t need that looking at all the bad stuff that could happen. All you need is positivity and a good feel and you can get through anything. You can talk to social workers you can talk to a therapist, if you need to.
I had good support and it made my journey a lot easier.
You will have bad days, but on your bad days, you’ll just rest and on your good days, go.
And it is, for me, it was a big life change. I never thought of it.
And also, my husband had to stop his job because he had to take care of me and it was a big financial burden, but through other programs and stuff as people there to help. I got long term disability and stuff with the company I used to work with. So, I’m more fortunate than other people that is going through the same thing. And they can’t afford to stop working. But sometimes you have to just to eliminate some distress and all that.
Sometimes you just, I don’t know, just live one day at a time.
Some people get in a rabbit hole that they can’t get out of but there is a rabbit hole that you can get out of and I just want you to know that.
Disclaimer: Guest blogs are the purposes of education and/or sharing perspectives. The information shared by bloggers should not be interpreted as medical advice. All health information should be discussed with your health care provider. The website owners are not responsible for the contents of the guest blog posts.
This guest blog is a part of a public – scientist collaborative project led by the Public Interest Group on Cancer Research in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. For further information, please see here: mun.yaffle.ca/projects/15039.
I was delighted to be a speaker and talk about “Cancer In Newfoundland and Labrador” at the A.C. Hunter Public Library on June 7, 2023.
This was a hybrid event with in-person and virtual participants. Thank you folks for joining us that day!
I recorded my talk later on June 9, 2023 to make it accessible by all. I hope that it is beneficial to you and will help you protect yourself from cancer.
Pleased to introduce you to our first guest blogger, who wishes to remain anonymous but is happy to share their thoughts as someone affected by cancer.
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Guest Blog Post – 1
September 2022, Newfoundland and Labrador
Cancer has affected my family in so many different ways. I am fortunate enough to say I have never had cancer, but I cannot say it hasn’t affected my life.
When I was roughly 13 years of age, my family received news that no family wanted to hear. My mother was diagnosed with kidney cancer and was about to be sent to St. John’s for surgery. I really did not understand, even though I was 13. It was very difficult to wrap my head around. I did not understand why it was happening either. That same year, my mother’s uncle, my great uncle, was also suffering from cancer. We were very close with him. He unfortunately passed in 2015. I am very fortunate to have my mother, my largest supporter and best friend by my side today, cancer free. There are many people in this world who aren’t as lucky.
With cancer affecting my family in so many ways, I decided a long time ago that I was going to help make a difference. I have participated in the Relay for Life, I have joined a wonderful public interest group on cancer, and I have tried to educate myself on the concept to the best of my ability. Cancer is, without a doubt, something that we fear. It has a massive impact on the individual, as well as their family and friends.
The genetic makeup of cancer is something so complicated that many cannot begin to understand; it’s a disease that has been taking lives for over 3000 years, as the first documented case of cancer is from around 1500 BC. It is also very likely that cancer has always been around, and this is just the first documented case when people were beginning to understand. Around 360 BC, Hippocrates deemed the disease to be termed carcinoma, then in later years the English termed it Cancer.
I do as much research as I possibly can, and I always ensure it is coming from a trusted source. 50% of people in Canada will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and 25% of those will pass away from cancer. As of today, there is no set cure. There are prevention measures that can be taken, as well as treatment, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. But prevention is better than treatment. The prevention measures that can be taken such as wearing sunscreen in the sun, eating healthy, remaining active, getting vaccinated, are just some of the ways you can reduce your risk. In saying this, sometimes cancer just occurs even with all these measures being taken. Always remember to live a healthy life, as well as a happy life, as tomorrow is never promised. Sometimes even if you do all these things and more, as my mother did, you can still obtain the unfortunate diagnosis.
I explain all these different facts for the sole purpose of understanding. I truly believe that educating ourselves on this topic can result in a small decrease in risk. I believe that educating ourselves about anything, especially things that scare us, has benefits.
Cancer was something that since I was a young child, frightened me. However, the more I expand my knowledge the more I also understand that there is hope. There is hope to not only decrease risk, but the hope for a cure and to find more methods of protection.
Disclaimer: Guest blogs are the purposes of education and/or sharing perspectives. The information shared by bloggers should not be interpreted as medical advice. All health information should be discussed with your health care provider.
