A caregiver, Papua New Guinea

Nothing prepared me for how cancer would change my life. The emotional explosion that devastates reason when it confronts you unexpectedly.

My mother was diagnosed when I was a teenager. I wish I had the knowledge I have now, to have fervently urged her to get screened when the lump was first discovered—roughly the size of a five-toea coin. I remember her telling me about it at that stage, and my response was one of concerned empathy, but not the urgent advocacy it needed. If only...

I watched my mother fight with every ounce of strength and faith as the disease progressed. She never once showed me her vulnerability—I suppose she didn't want me to worry. But I was changing as she was. I felt the world I held dear tip on its axis; my internal world turned upside down.

Breast cancer sucks. It is a terrible scourge, and I say this with every convictional fibre in my body: it took my mother.

This loss is the reason for my deep passion for delivering cancer education, with a specific focus on primary prevention, early detection, and screening. My mission is to provide this life-saving knowledge to everyone, empowering individuals to become agents of transformative choice in their own health.

Ultimately, I do this work so that if anyone or a loved one ever faces a diagnosis, they are equipped not with "if only," but with the knowledge to take prompt, decisive action.

This story was published with the consent of Papua New Guinea Cancer Foundation Incorporated.