Cancer drains everyone and everything!

Cancer drains everyone and everything! When I first met Staci after correspondence between the both of us for 2 months, she gave me a smile, and she was so cheerful. Standing in front of me was a 25 year old colorectal cancer PATIENT that showed no sign that she was undergoing chemotherapy, and recently underwent a major surgery to remove parts of her colon(a colectomy surgery).

I was so thankful for her sharing her story, and joining the #sharestrength movement by writing about her story in her own blog upon being diagnosed. Not only that, she agreed to be a part of the second series of Ä New Norm, now called the Awakening! She was so cheerful, and sharing about her missed career opportunities due to her diagnosis, when she told me, “Oh yea, I will be going for my second chemo tomorrow’’, when I choked on the water I was drinking. How could this girl be so courageous and strong, even when she’s undergoing treatment?

And that’s Staci, a cheerful 25 year old, at the cusp of her starting a new job when she found out accidentally through a medical check-up for a job that she had stage 3 colon cancer. She was definitely shocked as I was, but all she could think of was her mom, a single mother, and how to break it to her. Can you imagine the mental preparation needed to tell your mom, someone whom you love so dearly? Thus, Her strength comes from within to be strong for her mom, as she didn’t want her mother to worry for her, AND she endeavors to pay for her own medical bills once her yearly insurance funds of up to RM70,000 is exhaustedthrough working(she is still working in between chemotherapy, because she still wants to earn the money to pay for her treatment and does not want to be too behind in her career compared to her friends) while undergoing chemotherapy! She will definitely need to come up with more money as Rm50,000 of the RM70,000 has gone to her surgery, and chemotherapy will cost her another Rm50,000 or more excluding her chemo port surgery, and post chemotherapy care. Hence, always remember to be prepared financially as we will never know what will happen tomorrow….

Look at this girl, smiling after the surgery to insert the chemo pod! Bravo Staci! Plus, she’s walking around with the chemo pod inside her, and even when she has loss of appetite, she still eats!

And this is her after her second chemotherapy, still smiling!

Through Staci’s courage and strength of sharing in her blog and video, we would like to encourage all of you to share YOUR story, and take the pledge with us. Every SHARE of this video or blog post, AXA AFFIN is donating RM1 to the National Cancer Society of Malaysia for their Cancer Information System (CIS) to help patients, survivors and caretakers with cancer!!!