Caught by Cancer

"Caught by Cancer" is my thought of how I ended up here, living in a beautiful area in the Western Cape I was diagnosed with stage 4 Breast Cancer in the liver at the age of 47 in 2018 this was not what anyone can plan on. Original diagnosis May 2016.

Daughter of 13 in 2016, applying to High schools threw her schooling into a dire spiral, at rediagnosis, it completely knocked her socks off. Now she is in Matric.

Husband of 17 years he didn't fair too well either.

My cancer is genetic, but the gene mutation has no treatment. It is the 'ATM' gene mutation, not the well-known BRCA 1 or 2 which became famous with Angelina Jolie's diagnosis.

Covid struck, the 1st one to be retrenched was the stage 4 patient. UIF eventually paid out a small amount 11 months later. But has now stopped. I have little income and bills coming in every day. Not just medical bills household bills like licencing of the car, school fees to finish paying, replacement tyres, deposits for my daughter's tuition next year. This excludes the credit card bills from before retrenchment, which are constantly phoning, but no income no ability to pay them back!

I'm drowning my family and I have little time to fix it as I am running out of treatment options. Each treatment fights my cancer for about 6-8 months and then the cancer becomes resistant to the treatment I have completed 10 lines since 2016. I have 3 treatments left! I start my new one in 2 weeks. Add it up I have 2 years of treatment left. But that is not my end, I will fight until the last breath.

FInancially I would like to leave my family in black, not red.

My friends and support group call me SuperWoman, as I am constantly positive and I am enthusiastic to keep on living, I am always putting together ideas where I can make extra money, I am an able person with sewing skills and craft skills, the size of the projects are just getting smaller by the month.

I am planning market stalls for over the festive season, obviously with help from my ever-patient family, but with chemo, the follow-through is very difficult, the exhaustion overwhelming.

At present, I am taking in old furniture to fix, paint and resell. This I can do little by little.

If you can help a small family recover from this - I would be forever grateful