Alejandra, Mexico

Twenty three years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 30; definitely a scary and life changing moment. There has not been a day since then, that I don't remember what I lived, or swiftly think of something that brings me back to that time in my life. Smells, names, tastes, my scar on the breast, stories that I hear, it all has the ability to immediately take me back to those times. The first years, dragging feelings of fear and sadness. Now personally, it only means appreciation and gratitude and collectively, hope. Hope for my people in Mexico, hope that our health system straightens out, hope for society to become proactive when it comes to procuring its health, hope that breast cancer research will advance rapidly, hope that all women in my country are as lucky as I was. That If they will have to be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lives, it is done when their chances of overcoming it are greater. 

But hoping is not enough, we need actions, facts, sufficient funds and political will. This goal is what has become my life mission since 2002 when I founded Fundación CIMA, a civil organization that reaches around 20 thousand people every year and which works every day to improve the conditions of breast cancer patients in the country, and to facilitate access to diagnostic studies for its population. 

May awareness on breast cancer grow around the world and thus, early diagnoses avoiding unnecessary deaths from this desease. 

Cheers 

Alejandra de Cima

Founder and president of Fundación CIMA and breast cancer survivor.