Recounting her enduring process after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she narrated that she joined almost all prayer platforms in Ghana to seek favour from God and healing grace because she believed it was spiritual.

When she noticed an unusual change in her breast, Mrs. Gozo visited a hospital for a check-up but was told the test result would be ready in four weeks.

According to her on Joy Prime’s Changes show, it traumatised her and triggered nightmares, which caused fear as she was scared of death due to stories she heard about the condition.

“Those 4 weeks were the craziest moments of my life. I couldn’t eat because I lost appetite completely. Even at times, waking up to use the washroom and take a shower was so difficult. I became weak because when I woke up every day, the question was, when the result came and I’m tested positive, what was the next step? That trauma alone gave me sleepless nights, and anytime I slept, I had a nightmare; whispers of the devil and it was like I’m going to die. At a point I didn’t want to sleep, but I found solace in God. I was on all the prayer platforms because I couldn’t sleep, and it was draining me,” she told Roselyn Felli.

Fast forward, the results were out, and she was diagnosed with stage four of invasive ductal carcinoma, a breast cancer type that happens when abnormal cells growing in the lining of the milk ducts change and invade breast tissue beyond the walls of the duct.

After several years of research on the treatment of the ailment, she resorted to herbal medication because she thought the hospital treatment procedure would be impossible. But after a month, the lump aggravated, and she stopped taking the herbs she was given.

While in the sick bed, all hope was lost, but she strengthened her faith, believing and hoping that things would turn around for her to be healed miraculously like others who she was with at the hospital. But she went through the medical process and opted for a six-month chemotherapy before surgery.

Through it all, Mrs. Gozo shared how she was calmed by listening to the songs of gospel singers Nacee, Sonnie Badu, and Diana Hamilton

“I was playing Sonnie Badu’s songs. I could just go on YouTube, look for an album, and play. Nacee’s song, ‘Aseda’ kept me. It was like he sang it for me and Diana Hamilton’s ‘My Meditations’. At that point, I realised when I was listening to the music, the lyrics were working for me.”

Her ordeal makes her testify to her friends that she has encountered God throughout the period.

Fafa Gozo is forever grateful to God for guiding her through the procedure successfully and for her complete healing. She shares her story to inspire others and is willing to support other breast cancer patients in any way possible to help them heal.

Recalling how her ordeal started, Joycelyn said that although she’s a nurse, she never went to have her breasts examined because she was fit and had no family history of a relative who had had the disease.

Unfortunately, in November 2019, she got to know she had the disease, and that shattered her plans.

Narrating how it all happened, Joycelyn mentioned that she had returned from work one night and, as part of her routine, she decided to speak with her husband before she retired to bed because he lives outside Accra.

Just when she laid on her back and, by chance, she touched her breast and felt a hard nut in there.

“I screamed, and my husband asked what was wrong and I said I felt a lump in my breast, and he advised that I go and have it examined”, she continued.

She finally yielded to have her breasts examined after two weeks of persistent reminders from her husband. And when she did, she had the shock of her life.

“The doctor I went to see asked that I do a breast scan, and when I went, the technician detected that the lump was cancerous.

“When he blurted out that I had cancer, I froze. And when he realised that I was taken aback by what he said, he then tried to allay my fears by saying I’ll be fine jokingly and that my doctor will advise me on what to do”, how pathetic!

According to the survivor, she got confused immediately and returned to see her doctor with the report.

“When I went back, my doctor asked me not to worry because a biopsy had to be done to actually confirm the lump was cancerous. So, he tried to counsel and encourage me”, she muttered.

Joycelyn had to wait to see another doctor the following day, and she was asked to go and have the biopsy done.

“I went through a lot of psychological trauma. The tears, prayers etc., in fact, I prayed and wished the biopsy report would turn out negative. Unfortunately, when I went for the report, my curiosity made me open it, and to my surprise, it was positive.

“My confusion doubled. I stood by the roadside for more than 30 minutes, not knowing what to do. I didn’t know whether to return to work, and I was confused as to who to call,” she said with tears welling up in her eyes.

Her clinician said it was good her case had been detected early, and it was the first stage. So, in December 2019, she had surgery and started chemotherapy in January 2020.

The husband of Joycelyn, Edward Elikplim Yaokumah, spoke about how his wife’s condition at the time affected him and the marriage.

“It wasn’t easy. I was confused. We hear about breast cancer, but for it to get close to you and affect your wife, it was not easy psychologically, and my fear was about the uncertainty of the future, not knowing what is really going to happen,” he exclaimed.

“I had fear of dying, and chemotherapy had a toll on me”, Joycelyn shared.

“I walked in boldly for my first chemotherapy. Two days afterward, I started feeling weak. I had nausea, diarrhoea and I was restless. I had mouth sores, I lost some of my toenails, I had rashes, loss of hair, and loss of appetite. It was not easy,” tears rolled down her eyes as she spoke.

According to the survivor, she did radiotherapy for three weeks, and that was much better than chemotherapy. Although she still goes for reviews and does labs, she is a lot better now.

“I’m excited where we are now. That she’s gone through all that, and she’s still fine. If you look at her, she’s more beautiful than ever,” Mr. Yaokumah said.

When asked about how breast cancer affected their marriage and sex life during his wife’s ordeal, Mr. Yaokumah answered “we tried a few shots intermittently, although it wasn’t like it used to be because the chemotherapy caused a lot of changes in my wife.”

Joycelyn revealed that she did not want to lose her husband after cancer treatment, so they had to use lubricants and although she didn’t enjoy sex, she just had to do it because she had to play her role as a wife to keep the marriage going.

She added that before chemotherapy, she weighed a little above 60kg, but after that, she bloated and became darker, lost her hair, and weighed above 90kg.

Fortunately, she returned to almost her normal size by going for walks, working out, changing her diet, and drinking a lot more water.

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According to her, she heard on the radio that as a lady, you have to massage your breasts to see if there’s something wrong with it.

So she tried it and noticed there was a little lump in one of her breasts.

“Initially, I ignored it, but after 3 months, it started growing bigger. So, I informed my brothers because I’m the only girl in the midst of six boys, but they didn’t take me seriously,” Gifty muttered sadly.

She said the lump was not painful then, but as it grew bigger, it became painful. So, she took a step further and went to a clinic at Winneba, and they diagnosed her with fibroadenoma.

“They said it was not cancer, but if I didn’t take it out, it may later turn cancerous. I informed my brothers, but they ignored me,” Gifty said sadly.

When asked about how she was finally diagnosed with the disease, Gifty said she sought medical care from the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. A sample of the lump was taken, and she was told it had developed into a bad cancer.https://www.youtube.com/embed/GLM6wXdM8_U?si=GgCbuHm8mYDhL6YU

Gifty said her brothers’ unconcerned behaviour, did not discourage her. She decided to try herbal medicine.

“I went to see someone who directed me to a lady who said she’ll help me. She gave me herbal medicine and I tried it, but still, there was no improvement. I informed my brothers about the ordeal I was going through, but they still didn’t pay much attention to me because they were focused on taking care of our sick mother.”

“The pain was so much that sometimes, I could lay down for three days without moving… and I was still drinking the herbal medicine,” the breast cancer survivor continued.

“I remember an incident when one of the herbal medicines was applied on the breast, and every pain I was feeling vanished. At that moment, I thought I had gotten the right medicine, but I tried and tried to no avail.”

Unfortunately, my brothers were still not paying any attention to what was happening to me, so
I realised I needed to take action before something bad happened to me, Gifty shared.

“I had to run away from home to go and live with one of my brothers at Kasoa. His wife, that’s my sister-in-law, suggested that I follow her to church to seek help but I was hesitant considering the ordeal I had earlier gone through, having my breast tied with bandage to my shoulder and all that, I didn’t want to encounter anything anymore.”

“Rather, I kept asking God if He’ll allow me to die with such a disease. Due to lack of financial support, and the fact that my family would rather want me to do the herbal treatment which I didn’t subscribe to, I resorted to taking painkillers to reduce the pain I was going through, until last year 27th November, when I decided to finally go to the church”.

“My breast grew very big to the extent that those who didn’t know me thought I was pregnant.
Fortunately, help located me at the church. The pastor and a nurse were instrumental in getting me in touch with someone at the Chemotherapy Department at Korle Bu, and I was given a protocol treatment”

She did some scans, x-rays, and a date was given for the surgery.

“Initially, I was scared because I was not getting any encouragement from anyone. Family and friends were rather putting fear in me. They told me I wouldn’t survive the surgery but a sermon from my Bishop encouraged me, and I took a step of faith to do the surgery.”

Mr. Eric Brobbey at the Chemotherapy Department at Korle Bu raised funds for her treatment and surgery, and thankfully, the surgery was done in April this year.

According to her, it was after the surgery that she got to know that, apparently, she had only 2 weeks to live so if she had not undergone the surgery, she would have died because she had lost a lot of blood due to the overdose of painkillers she consumed during the initial stages of her condition.

“I thank God for a successful surgery. However, not everyone is happy for me. My family actually called me to find out about my whereabouts and when I broke the news to them that I had undergone surgery at Korle-Bu, they got angry and one of them actually told me he never wanted to see me again. So, I’m currently staying with my sister-in-law”, Gifty said.

“I’m supposed to start radiotherapy, but due to lack of funds, I’ve not been able to go for that treatment.”

Host of the programme, Edem Knight-Tay solicited help for Gifty to enable her to undergo the radiotherapy treatment.

Coming from a family with a cancer history, Mrs Malik opined that she went to the hospital mentally prepared when she noticed an abnormality with her breast.

After being diagnosed with stage three cancer of the breast, the travel consultant said she was unperturbed.

She believed that considering the alien which had intruded her body a danger meant she was throwing in the towel even before the battle began.

“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I decided that ‘we are going to fight and I must win’. So I didn’t allow worry to eat me up,” she told participants of a Breast Cancer Awareness Symposium organised by Danquah Institute on Tuesday.

Studies show that the average time between when people see an abnormality in their breast and when they report it to the hospital is about eight months.

But Mrs Malik reported to the hospital a month after she started experiencing pains in her breast.

She mentioned that with her family history, she did not undermine any irregularity that she experienced in her body.

“I have a history of a relative having prostate cancer in my family so, at the time, I considered it [my diagnosis] as me carrying the cross of cancer in my family, and it should end with me,” the survivor said.

“So if I allowed it to defeat me, then it will continue to eat up people in the family” she added.

According to a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Surgery at the University Ghana, about 80 per cent of persons diagnosed with breast cancer in the country are in stage three or four.

Dr Florence Dedey explained at the symposium that the findings are worrying.

She said that the delays in reporting cases make the cancerous cells spread, therefore, making it difficult to cure.

“One thing about breast cancer is that when it is detected early and treated effectively that is when it can be cured. When you don’t detect it early the chance of having a cure is reduced significantly,” she stressed.

Treatment

The treatment journey was not an easy voyage. But like a warrior, she was willing to “secure peace only by preparing for war.” – John F. Kennedy.

She may have been mentally strong and not willing to succumb to the disease but the radiation and chemotherapy had their effects.

Recounting some parts of the turbulent journey, she said she lost her hair and became skinny.

However, that didn’t deter her from forging forward. The light at the end of the tunnel was her target and her determined spirit was willing to crawl to it – if that is what it would take.

“The doctor said ‘we have to cut both breasts, I said ‘if it is three, I will want to get those things off,’” she narrated.

But giving reasons for the hair fallout, a surgeon at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Nelson Agboadoy said it is an effect of the chemotherapy.

He explained the chemical substance acts on cells that divide very fast, thus, in the process of attacking the cancer cells, other cells like those of the hair are affected.

Way forward

Considering the astounding figures of patients that report to the hospital with stage four cancer, a former Deputy Health Minister called for a policy to avert the situation.

Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye, taking his turn at the symposium, said laws must be enacted and implemented to regularise breast screening.

He insisted that the normalisation of breast examination will ensure that persons with cancerous cells are detected early for treatment.

“We must advocate. The more noise we make, the more we force policymakers to sit down and review what is on the table. Preventive care is the only way to solve this serious issue,” he opined.

Dr Okoe-Boye, therefore, suggested that “before a woman gets registered to be on a payroll, one of the requirements is to know when last they went for breast screening.”

“Until we attach breast cancer results or examination results to proceedings that are normal, some people will not still yield,” he added

After being to the “butchering” room and back, Mrs Malik said she does not wish what she has been through on anybody.

For this reason, she has set up a Non-Governmental Organisation to increase sensitisation and advocacy in the country.

With MaudLoko Breast Cancer Foundation, she hopes to change the fortunes of many others.