By: Dr Mary Sathela Kanu
Freetown, 20th October 2025- From years in medical school as a student and now as a medical doctor my experiences interacting with patients especially breast cancer patients have left me with no choice but to document it. I have come to see breast cancer not just as a disease of the body, but as a story worth telling, one of which tells different stories from fear, faith, ignorance, knowledge, and hope.
Within the hospital walls, I have seen women at different stages of understanding and acceptance come face to face with this ugly enemy. I once met a patient who knew that if her results came back as cancer, it would change everything, from physically down to mentally. She understood the implications of how far her symptoms had already gone. Yet she faced it with quite a faith, clutching her calendar and listening to her favorite pastor’s voice through her phone. Each time I visit the ward, her smile will serve as an anesthetic agent that will numb her face completely. She always says “Doctor, I believe I can beat this”. Until one day, she wasn’t there anymore.
Then there was a woman who came from Lungi with one of her five children. Her daughter, innocent and confused, whispered to me, “Aunty, she just said her breast is aching o, nothing else.” I smiled to hide my thoughts because I had already seen the classical signs. It was far more than a simple ache. The mother explained with no worries as if she just wanted some pain killers to move on with her life, she said this is what Allah has brought her. She said she only prayed He heals her; that her market goods are still in the store, and they might spoil.
For two weeks, I watched her weaken from a mother who chatted with her child that was sitting by her bed side, to one who could barely respond, to a child sitting silently by her bedside. Then one day, both were gone, no trace of both the sick mom or child, they had been replaced by another patient. The silence told the story.
There was even a case of a man who showed up with a breast lump, he understood everything I saw him calculating every word coming out of his doctor just to know if stood a chance at life again.
But not every story ends in despair, yes not all cases.
I met another woman bold, radiant, and full of life. Two-toned hair, tattoos, and bleached skin. She had lost both breasts, yet she was the one filling the ward with laughter. She was the light in a room filled with pain, offering hope to others when she had every reason to lose hers.
I met a lady who was just 28. She had no idea how far it had gone, her left breast had swallowed all her chest. Her story didn’t end in death, she fought through it.
Another case was a 22 year old lady who knows everything about breast cancer awareness. She rushed herself to the clinic and it turns out it was nothing to worry about, when she heard it she screamed and hugged the nurse as if she won a lottery. I guess she won a lottery for life again.
These stories have taught me that breast cancer has many faces: ignorance, acceptance, resilience, and sometimes, triumph. I cannot overemphasize the power of early detection. What is “normal” for someone else may not be normal for you.
