Rania, Greece
I am thirty-three years old and last April I was diagnosed with colon cancer and liver metastases, a form of cancer not so common for someone my age. A cancer that I had already been carrying for about two years before I was diagnosed, because an irresponsible doctor was costing my life with visits to his office, without prescribing me further tests.
Cancer. An six-letter word that just hearing it gives you fear. A word that the world around you is afraid to pronounce and somehow constitutes a taboo, as a result of which it is unfairly demonized. The rapid developments in medicine have managed to make cancer no longer considered a terminal disease, through advanced treatment protocols, which lead to the cure of the disease.
February 4, 2025. World Cancer Day. After 8 months, which included rounds of chemotherapy, countless tests, surgeries, disappointments, small joys and a constant struggle for survival, thanks to science, doctors, nurses and God, I experienced my own miracle. Now with the current data I am healed and can write for those who are or have been in the same position as me.
The path of a cancer patient never stops, as in the back of his mind there is the experience of the disease and he carries out preventive examinations at regular intervals. However, what should be realized is that this route itself is a personal bet with yourself and your limits. Many cancer patients cannot tolerate it. Others hope for better days.
The point is that the limits of each person are unknown. A month after being diagnosed with the disease, I decided to leave behind the darkness that comes with fear of the unknown path that cancer puts you on and look for the light of life, telling my oncologist “I will not be a career failure yours" and she answered me "Not even yours".
I am writing these words for Sofia, Liana, Giorgos, Babis, Lola, Ilianna, little Giannakis, Nota, Stelios and so many other people who were diagnosed with cancer and every day give or have given their personal fight . Cancer is like the bogeyman we used to fear hiding under our beds when we were children. He is invisible, but not invulnerable!