Speaker 1: Adventist Radio London inspiration for the song anybody want to
Speaker 1: make the Lord smile for your life? Everybody to rise.
Speaker 2: It's nice, good evening, Good evening, and welcome to Talking Point.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Adventist Radio London and as always, we
Speaker 2: are happy to have you on board and we're having
Speaker 2: another meaningful and deep conversation raising awareness, this time on
Speaker 2: breast cancer. It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the
Speaker 2: theme for this month is no one should face cancer
Speaker 2: alone and we're going to have a deep conversation. We've
Speaker 2: got two guests who will share their experience there their
Speaker 2: knowledge on the topic and hopefully we know that you
Speaker 2: will be blessed for this conversation and encouraged. Always I
Speaker 2: have with me my co hosts, Angela Petro. How are
Speaker 2: we doing?
Speaker 3: Say, good evening, Good evening everyone, and welcome to Talking Points. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm not too bad. Another week has flown past, I
Speaker 3: think now I say that every week, but it's just
Speaker 3: scary how the year has flown past and we're yeah.
Speaker 4: Almost in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been a bit of a stressful week.
Speaker 3: I'm still getting over the loss of a friend and
Speaker 3: remember at our church Angela. So it's been a bit
Speaker 3: up and down, but hey, we're at another sabbath. I'm
Speaker 3: blessed for that. Had a full day as usual. So yeah,
Speaker 3: all good, all.
Speaker 5: Good, good after everybody, Glad you got join us. Welcome
Speaker 5: to talk about this is Pedro. My week has been fine,
Speaker 5: you know, same old, same old. Use that word in
Speaker 5: a while in a while, yeah, I figured I would
Speaker 5: throw it out there.
Speaker 2: But no.
Speaker 5: Work has been good, driving a lot as usual. Both
Speaker 5: my cars broke down at the same time, which is
Speaker 5: unusual and for the same thing. But God blessed me
Speaker 5: so I was able to get them back up and
Speaker 5: running and at least one of them and pretty much.
Speaker 5: You know, children, my daughter has surgier on her finger.
Speaker 5: She had a very rare case on her finger. She
Speaker 5: they thought it was like a cist but it was bone.
Speaker 5: It was growing in her finger like going out, so
Speaker 5: it's like to make it a very hard lump. So
Speaker 5: she had that. So she's recuperating from that. So that's
Speaker 5: about it. I mean, you know that the doctor couldn't
Speaker 5: even be explained it because they've never seen it before.
Speaker 5: They was kind of like it was kind of confused
Speaker 5: themselves like what it was. So we're hoping that they
Speaker 5: got it out and then it won't go back, because
Speaker 5: that could be the fair that could go back. So
Speaker 5: we'll see over time. But yeah, I know that, you know,
Speaker 5: everybody's in good health and we're good, you know, just maintaining,
Speaker 5: you know, doing the same. I don't want to see
Speaker 5: it again. Actually, like you said, Angela, it's like, uh,
Speaker 5: just thinking about how close we are to Christmas, and
Speaker 5: it's like time is really flying. To me, the weeks
Speaker 5: go slow, it's the weekends that go fast. Weeks. The
Speaker 5: weeks go fast, but the weekends really go fast. It's
Speaker 5: like you blink and it's like it's Friday night. You're
Speaker 5: blinking and it's Monday morning. Yeah, that's how it feels
Speaker 5: to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, the year is nearly done, would you
Speaker 2: believe it? And I say it all the time. It
Speaker 2: comes from doing weekly shows. In my case, I do
Speaker 2: monthly programs, and I think as soon as you've wrapped
Speaker 2: up one, here comes another. And I feel that helps
Speaker 2: to kind of speed the week so long it feels
Speaker 2: like you're constantly working on these projects.
Speaker 5: And yeah, time working into projects because I do give
Speaker 5: my marriage. Yes, between that and this and then the
Speaker 5: kids and the wife and working, it's like like what
Speaker 5: do you what? My goodness like, where's the time going?
Speaker 2: Where does the time go?
Speaker 5: We can arrest you know, I feel I mean I
Speaker 5: feel you like you know how you feel?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, let me say this. We've got two guests
Speaker 2: on on and I'm going to let them introduce themselves shortly.
Speaker 2: A reminder maybe for people to get in touch. Perhaps
Speaker 2: you have a story, perhaps.
Speaker 5: You have.
Speaker 2: A breast cancer journey that you'd like to share, or
Speaker 2: to say how things are similar for you, what you've
Speaker 2: been through, what resonates with you. We really really would
Speaker 2: love to hear from you. Please do get in touch.
Speaker 2: It is Studio Adventist Radio dot London, or it's eight
Speaker 2: triple to eight Hope Space and then your message, or
Speaker 2: you can what's up zero seven four five nine six
Speaker 2: four to eight nine eight. Let's pray and then we'll
Speaker 2: get started. Dear Henley, Fatherie, thank you for another opportunity,
Speaker 2: another opportunity to have a meaningful conversation this evening about
Speaker 2: breast cancer. Lord. This is a very serious topic and
Speaker 2: so many struggle with cancer in general have suffered from
Speaker 2: I've suffered with cancer, and Lord, I pray that this
Speaker 2: conversation will be a source of inspiration and blessing and
Speaker 2: encouragement to them, to us and to those who are
Speaker 2: taking part. Bless the technology in Jesus name. I pray,
Speaker 2: Amen and Amen, Amen wonderful. I wonder our guest there,
Speaker 2: vetter Nicole. Yes, hello there, fantastic, fantastic Nicol. Why don't
Speaker 2: I start with you? You were with us before, so
Speaker 2: not a stranger to Talking Point, not a stranger to Arl.
Speaker 2: We had a breast cancer conversation. I want to say,
Speaker 2: who should idea say? I think it was April or
Speaker 2: they're about twenty twenty if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: sounds so long ago. It was just under COVID, kicking
Speaker 2: off of COVID, and we spoke very candidly about breast cancer.
Speaker 2: We had some guests on who had experienced it intimately,
Speaker 2: and I think it was a very meaningful conversation. Not
Speaker 2: I think it was a very meaningful conversation. So many
Speaker 2: people were blessed for it. But you're back, and we
Speaker 2: want to talk to you about what's been happening since
Speaker 2: we want to maybe get people caught up in terms
Speaker 2: of what they may have missed. What are you doing now?
Speaker 2: What do you do? I say, your health advocate, health
Speaker 2: and well being advocate? What would you say? Nicole introduced
Speaker 2: yourself to our listeners.
Speaker 6: Well, thank you first of all for having me back.
Speaker 6: And it has been quite a time since we spoke.
Speaker 6: There many beautiful things have happened. And I say beautiful
Speaker 6: because of course it's inside of the empowerment space. So yes,
Speaker 6: I am a woman's health advocate, educator and I am
Speaker 6: that a breast care specialist. I've been doing this for
Speaker 6: twenty two years, Caribbean based, but working globally and especially
Speaker 6: with our education. One of the things that has really
Speaker 6: been very much a catalyst to the work that I'm
Speaker 6: doing is focusing on education.
Speaker 1: And that's because a.
Speaker 6: Woman who is diagnosed literally sometimes it's just caught up
Speaker 6: in so much that is going on in that minute
Speaker 6: that she has been diagnosed. She has to immediately spring
Speaker 6: into action and start looking at her care, treatment, recovery
Speaker 6: and rehabilitation. But the first thing she really has to
Speaker 6: do is look at addressing the situation. So that is
Speaker 6: one of the most traumatic times in the world for
Speaker 6: any person, and it's not just the person who is
Speaker 6: being diagnosed. It's their entire social support system. It's the family.
Speaker 6: It's the partner, a spouse, if they're married or if
Speaker 6: they in relationship.
Speaker 1: It's the children.
Speaker 6: You know, children might be in such school age and
Speaker 6: suddenly mummy is no longer available to take it to
Speaker 6: school or to help you with the homework, and suddenly
Speaker 6: everything goes into upheaval inside the workplace. That woman is
Speaker 6: no longer able to participate in active work in the workforce,
Speaker 6: so that either reduces the income or the productivity both
Speaker 6: most instances. And then of course you start to feel
Speaker 6: like you are a burden to your family, your loved ones,
Speaker 6: to the workforce, to everything.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So there's so many.
Speaker 6: Psychosocial facets that that play inside of this. So you know,
Speaker 6: every time a woman is diagnosed, I always said, the
Speaker 6: village is actually in trouble because it's not just a
Speaker 6: woman who is having a traumatic time.
Speaker 1: It's the neighborhood.
Speaker 6: If she was the newspaper vendor, or the or the
Speaker 6: supply of coconut water. I was using most basic examples, right,
Speaker 6: you know, you know you now no longer have access
Speaker 6: to your nourishment, your liquid nourishment, if you were buying
Speaker 6: coconut water from her every day on the way to work,
Speaker 6: if you were buying a newspaper, and no buying newspaper
Speaker 6: is now something that we don't even realize that newspapers,
Speaker 6: physical newspapers, anything start falling by the way, you know.
Speaker 6: And of course that is just the social part of it.
Speaker 6: We haven't started to talk about the clinical part. We
Speaker 6: haven't started to talk about the psychological part. We haven't
Speaker 6: started to talk about the financial facets, you know, in
Speaker 6: terms of how is she going to pay for all
Speaker 6: of this, And we have not started to talk about
Speaker 6: the post surgical journey.
Speaker 1: Way after a year later, two.
Speaker 6: Years later, a decade later, we haven't started.
Speaker 1: To deal with anything like that.
Speaker 6: So my real passion and mission is around education. And
Speaker 6: it was really exciting that over the last weekend I
Speaker 6: was able to spend some valuable time with some of
Speaker 6: my global payers inside of the industry that I'm in,
Speaker 6: specifically around post operative care, and we were, you know,
Speaker 6: just sharing ideas, sharing best practices, sharing issues that we
Speaker 6: are dealing with and ways we have had to be
Speaker 6: creative to make sure that that woman feels empowered and
Speaker 6: doesn't feel like she's alone, you know, And that theme
Speaker 6: for this is so apt because many times isolation and
Speaker 6: loneliness sets in. So that's that's a nutshell of what
Speaker 6: what I what, I will, how I will introduce myself,
Speaker 6: and I could go on and on, but I wanted
Speaker 6: to start by really punctuating this conversation with a picture,
Speaker 6: a picture of what happens when a woman is diagnosed,
Speaker 6: and how I play a role in that journey, and
Speaker 6: how I then allow her to feel empowered not just
Speaker 6: on her own, but but with with people along the way.
Speaker 2: Thank you. There is such thank you, Nicole, There is
Speaker 2: there is, I mean, there is so much to the
Speaker 2: breast cancer story, so much to to what you discuss,
Speaker 2: and I think we want to unpack it, perhaps provide
Speaker 2: some statistics and figures as we go along. But if
Speaker 2: I can pull you back to the very beginning, what
Speaker 2: was it that prompted you to get into this space?
Speaker 6: So I had had many many I wouldn't I wouldn't
Speaker 6: use the word reasons or rationales, many encounters and experiences
Speaker 6: with the breast story.
Speaker 1: I will call it the breast story.
Speaker 7: I had my.
Speaker 6: Personal challenge as an adolescent girl at nine, starting to
Speaker 6: develop breasts very early, and knowing that I had a
Speaker 6: pair of breasts brought with it so many other fears
Speaker 6: and challenges. Also in high school at age sixteen and seventeen,
Speaker 6: when we were preparing to exit the secondary school and
Speaker 6: to emerge into the workforces, you know, adding our future,
Speaker 6: one of my classmates was in fact diagnosed with breast cancer.
Speaker 1: And then we had encountered cancer.
Speaker 6: In the village, in the community, in so many spheres
Speaker 6: as I had been emerging as a woman in society
Speaker 6: that I thought I had to take control of a
Speaker 6: conversation and change a narrative, particularly because I felt as
Speaker 6: a young woman when I had started doing my breast examinations,
Speaker 6: I had what they call cistic breast tissue. So my
Speaker 6: breast tissue is pretty much full of cyst what you
Speaker 6: might call, if in Layman's terms, lumpy breasts, and those
Speaker 6: cists sometimes might present as a risk if it is
Speaker 6: that we don't understand our bodies. And so I had
Speaker 6: many many challenges, and that brought me to a dialogue
Speaker 6: around breast health and breast care, and it brought me
Speaker 6: into a space of understanding that I could either stand
Speaker 6: on the sideline and watch on and be afraid, or
Speaker 6: I could address this and change the lives of many,
Speaker 6: and so I opted to do that. So in two
Speaker 6: thousand and two I started the Social Enterprise, and in
Speaker 6: two thousand and six I left my beautiful, fancy corporate
Speaker 6: job where I had so many fancy perks and everything.
Speaker 6: But I wanted to wanted to emerge in a space
Speaker 6: where I could make so much good use of changing
Speaker 6: and narrative, you know, And so for me, it was
Speaker 6: really about the social impact and about the work I
Speaker 6: would do and how difficult it might be. And it
Speaker 6: has been, and trust me, is very challenging. But it's
Speaker 6: also very fulfilling to see women feel empowered and to
Speaker 6: see family glow on their faces because I have done
Speaker 6: something that really started where I decided that I needed
Speaker 6: to create impact and to add value in a community,
Speaker 6: in a space and a society, and of course, in
Speaker 6: that process provide women with dignity.
Speaker 2: That's so wonderful. But I don't know if Pedro Angie
Speaker 2: want to jump in here, but I just I mean,
Speaker 2: your story is similar to so many who have stepped
Speaker 2: back from, like you said, corporate books, corporate jobs, corporate privileges,
Speaker 2: high paying high flying roles to kind of give back
Speaker 2: or to follow their passions, and generally passion is birth
Speaker 2: from pain. It's from those messes, from those mistakes that
Speaker 2: you get you understand what your purpose is. And that's
Speaker 2: exactly what you've been saying. So it's really good to
Speaker 2: hear it, and we're looking forward to hearing more of
Speaker 2: what you've been doing in this in this health space. Angie,
Speaker 2: I don't know, Pedro, do you want to add anything here?
Speaker 2: And do we want to then talk about breast cancer,
Speaker 2: which is where we want to focus tonight's conversation. I
Speaker 2: remember reading that one in ten women are diagnosed with
Speaker 2: breast cancer every hour in the UK. I may have
Speaker 2: that wrong, but but breast cancer is prevalent in the UK,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure Nicole will add to that that it's
Speaker 2: prevalent across the globe. You're a nute.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Okay, sorry, I was just going to say, Nicole,
Speaker 3: you've mentioned obviously about wanting to change the narrative. What
Speaker 3: was the narrative? And you mentioned also about education. Was
Speaker 3: that something that was spoken about quite openly and quite
Speaker 3: frankly always there's still a lot of sort of misconceptions
Speaker 3: that I just wasn't spoken about. What was the narrative
Speaker 3: that you were definitely wanted to change and to educate
Speaker 3: people on.
Speaker 1: So there was duality in the narrative.
Speaker 6: So the first narrative was one of fear, so fear
Speaker 6: because we don't know what we don't know. So there's
Speaker 6: that duality of the fear of I don't want to
Speaker 6: go for a mammogram, I don't want to go for screening.
Speaker 6: I'm afraid to do my self examination. I am afraid
Speaker 6: to go for a breast ultrasound. So its that that
Speaker 6: first part of the narrative, right, the fair narrative, because
Speaker 6: when a woman thinks about being diagnosed with breast cancer,
Speaker 6: the first thing she thinks about is immortality. The second
Speaker 6: dualism factor inside of the duality conversation or narrative is
Speaker 6: that of the social pressure social pressures of taboo, also
Speaker 6: the socio economic pressure of suppose I can't afford to
Speaker 6: take care of myself following a diagnosis. So there were
Speaker 6: these two things that to me were really pressing and
Speaker 6: they're still are and in fact I had I did
Speaker 6: a presentation on that in twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen for
Speaker 6: the UNDP in Saint Lucia, and we started to catalyze
Speaker 6: around the empowering women, and we started, you know, that
Speaker 6: conversation to make sure that there was again ease of
Speaker 6: talking about it. Particularly in some social settings, you'll find
Speaker 6: taboo outweighs the personal fear. But again, you know, one
Speaker 6: of the things that is very critical is empowering women
Speaker 6: so that they understand that early detection. If I do
Speaker 6: this early enough, if I have this conversation early enough,
Speaker 6: if I have this conversation with people who are not
Speaker 6: going to instill fear in me, or if I have
Speaker 6: second or third conversation with a multiplicity of people, this
Speaker 6: does not feel like I am alone, and it also
Speaker 6: doesn't feel like it's a taboo anymore.
Speaker 1: So that was really the narrative.
Speaker 6: Two basic narratives I needed to assist with changing. I
Speaker 6: won't say I've changed them totally, but I can contribute
Speaker 6: to changing those, and I think I've gotten far enough
Speaker 6: with that, so those, Okay.
Speaker 5: What I got from it more than anything was being
Speaker 5: a father of two young girls. Is telling my wife
Speaker 5: to go check them. I mean, that's be honest, just
Speaker 5: because you don't realize sometimes you think it's cancer is
Speaker 5: just affecting adults, but you forget that it can affect
Speaker 5: your children too. And like she said, like my daughter's
Speaker 5: nine or she's ten now, but she's spent developing since
Speaker 5: she was nine, and she's developing at a very experiential
Speaker 5: rate that I think is not natural. But you know,
Speaker 5: I've been told that that can happen sometimes, so you know,
Speaker 5: like just you know, talking to my wife and just
Speaker 5: you know, suggesting that maybe she you know, teaches her
Speaker 5: or her now so she could start learning from now,
Speaker 5: and you know, and my wife can also check, you know,
Speaker 5: and just checking on her, just making sure because you
Speaker 5: got to be self aware and like you said, nothing's taboo,
Speaker 5: nothing is out of the rum. You gotta talk about
Speaker 5: things that you could be prepared in case. You know,
Speaker 5: you need to be prepared. So that's what I got
Speaker 5: from her conversation. When anything is just soon as she
Speaker 5: said that she was nine, it just took me right
Speaker 5: to my kids. I was like, wow, I never even
Speaker 5: thought about that. Even though you see TV and stuff
Speaker 5: and children with cancer, you still don't think about it
Speaker 5: like happening to you. So it's good to check in.
Speaker 6: You know, that's right to clarifye, nothing happened to me
Speaker 6: at nine.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, I didn't say no, no, I didn't say
Speaker 5: nothing happened to you. What I mean what I mean
Speaker 5: in the sense of just I'm just saying like, because
Speaker 5: we like you were saying, having a mamogram at a
Speaker 5: you know, yet older, we have a managram. But I
Speaker 5: would say more in the sense of like because like
Speaker 5: I think, because let me put it this way, girls
Speaker 5: developed so much faster now that I think anybody that
Speaker 5: has a young girl should probably be more just to
Speaker 5: make just to check and make sure, because sometimes we
Speaker 5: just assume, you know, like like what if my daughter
Speaker 5: is not telling us that she has lumps in her
Speaker 5: breast and then then she gets sick. Like that's what
Speaker 5: I mean, like being pro being proactive in in the
Speaker 5: early stages, just to make sure that you know that
Speaker 5: everything's okay. That's what I mean in that sense. You
Speaker 5: understand what I mean.
Speaker 1: Sorry I said, we just don't want to scare the audience,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 5: I no, no, no, I'm not trying to scare the audience.
Speaker 5: But I'm just saying, though, but we still have to
Speaker 5: be we have to be parade. I think I think
Speaker 5: we as people. Sometimes we get complacent and just going
Speaker 5: with the flow, just going with things, and I think
Speaker 5: sometimes we need to be not I'm not trying to
Speaker 5: scare nobody because I'm talking about for myself. I'm talking
Speaker 5: about just you know, just porodically checking because you don't,
Speaker 5: you know, you want to make sure. You got to
Speaker 5: make sure, because you said like one in one in
Speaker 5: five are diagnosed in an hour or something.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I got my statistics wrong.
Speaker 5: But yeah, well you know that well, but I mean
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure that is a high rate. Yeah, because
Speaker 5: the world, with the world of everything that's going on
Speaker 5: in the world, there's you know, all this electrical stuff
Speaker 5: and and the wires and food and the environment. It's
Speaker 5: just it's and then genetics, you know, so it's just natural.
Speaker 5: So that I was just more saying in the sense
Speaker 5: of just it just made me more aware to be
Speaker 5: more mindful because it's like something that you don't think about.
Speaker 5: And I'm not trying to make people get all anxiety
Speaker 5: and think about it, but we have to think about
Speaker 5: things like this because we have to you know, be
Speaker 5: might be mindful. That's it. That's all I'm really saying.
Speaker 5: I hope I'm not scaring anybody. I'm not trying to
Speaker 5: scare people. Not really just.
Speaker 6: Wanted to no, I just wanted us to stick up
Speaker 6: in there. And Pedro, it's you're correct that proactive. You know,
Speaker 6: a way of being proactive is critical. So thank you
Speaker 6: for saying that. And the other thing I want to
Speaker 6: say to you as well, Petrol, is that men are
Speaker 6: also diagnosed with cancer and.
Speaker 2: The chest region.
Speaker 6: Yes, they are plug here at this moment, you know,
Speaker 6: as we have a minute and before we forget to
Speaker 6: encourage men as well to also understand that if you
Speaker 6: feel anything unusual, abnormal, you see anything that doesn't feel
Speaker 6: like it was there before you a week ago, a
Speaker 6: month ago, a year ago, please take action as well.
Speaker 6: So again, inside of that idea of being proactive, Pedro,
Speaker 6: that you spoke about the men, you know, it's it's
Speaker 6: great to have the men inside of the conversation as
Speaker 6: well as fathers, as husbands, and particularly as men who
Speaker 6: want to be responsible for their health and their well being.
Speaker 5: Can I answer a question on that subject in your experience?
Speaker 5: In your experience, are men are men more likely to
Speaker 5: go longer without Because my father, my father died of
Speaker 5: cancer and he had it, but he didn't go to
Speaker 5: the doctor. Yeah, he felt sick, but he didn't go
Speaker 5: to the doctor because men have a stigma about going
Speaker 5: to the doctor. So do you find it it's harder
Speaker 5: with men to get them to understand what I mean, Like.
Speaker 1: Yes, So I'll teck this.
Speaker 6: Over the years, we have seen and this is I'm
Speaker 6: speaking now in my environment in the Caribbean particularly, we
Speaker 6: have seen where a lot more public outreach is encouraging men.
Speaker 1: To come forward.
Speaker 6: So like health fears maybe available, and one of the
Speaker 6: things that might be on the cards or that health
Speaker 6: fare is free prostate screening or a voucher to go
Speaker 6: get free screening for the men. And you see men coming,
Speaker 6: You see men showing up, you know, especially in rural areas,
Speaker 6: and you're hearing men saying, now you know, I'm going
Speaker 6: to get checked. And that in itself is giving the
Speaker 6: man more longevity and also helping that other third narrative
Speaker 6: around the taboo of men not wanting to take charge
Speaker 6: of their well being. You're seeing that being reduced. Remember,
Speaker 6: I'm going to bring my dad into this. He's now deceased,
Speaker 6: but I remember when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer
Speaker 6: and his urologist, who I respect and regard so highly.
Speaker 6: He said to my dad, he said, you're not going
Speaker 6: to die of cancer, because we've sorted you out and
Speaker 6: you're all clear. Now you're not going to die of
Speaker 6: prostate cancer. And ten years later, my father died of
Speaker 6: her massive heart attack where because you know, he had
Speaker 6: literally been clear of cancer. And funny enough, my father
Speaker 6: had seen his doctor because he was going for his
Speaker 6: frequent checkups. Even after that diagnosis, he'll go for his
Speaker 6: annual checkups.
Speaker 1: And Edie would still.
Speaker 6: Go for his routine checkups, you know, And he had
Speaker 6: gone for a routine checkup, like just two weeks before
Speaker 6: he passed away. And I remember when I went to
Speaker 6: his general surgeon, his general practitioners gp to tell her,
Speaker 6: you know, he had passed away and whatever. That woman
Speaker 6: almost collapsed because she was like, but I just saw
Speaker 6: your father and gave him a clean bill of health.
Speaker 6: So again, you know, taking charge is one thing. And
Speaker 6: again I don't want to put fair in anybody's souls
Speaker 6: at this point, but we see a lot of men
Speaker 6: taking action, We see them being proactive, and we just
Speaker 6: want to encourage them, you know, to go for your checkups.
Speaker 6: Frequently to extend your life and to also extend your
Speaker 6: quality of life.
Speaker 1: So to answer your question, Pedro.
Speaker 6: I have seen from where I sit a lot more
Speaker 6: men feeling comfortable to have the conversation, because it is
Speaker 6: a very uncomfortable conversation to have, especially if you're talking
Speaker 6: about a digital prostate examination. You know, men feel it's
Speaker 6: a humiliating experience and all of these things. But the
Speaker 6: other great thing is that so many new technologies are
Speaker 6: now in place. In some ways, artificial intelligence is also
Speaker 6: helping in the process when it's used for good.
Speaker 1: So we're seeing.
Speaker 6: Trends where we can get more men to be more
Speaker 6: proactive and of course extend their life span and your
Speaker 6: quality of life.
Speaker 5: When you say digital, do you mean with a finger
Speaker 5: or you mean digital like like electronically.
Speaker 1: Digitald with a finger.
Speaker 6: That is the tradition, that was the traditional way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't use you.
Speaker 5: Don't use the word digital. That's why I was I
Speaker 5: want to clarify. I'm sorry, that's good. Actually, I was
Speaker 5: want to clarify because like for me, I'm like, if
Speaker 5: you talking about medical finger because I'm like, you're putting
Speaker 5: that finger, You're not putting that finger nowhere near me
Speaker 5: like you know, or try to get the doctor, got
Speaker 5: small hands or something. You know, but you know, that's
Speaker 5: just me, and that's.
Speaker 6: One that's what brought about the table a lot specifically
Speaker 6: around the matches more culture in the Caribbean where that
Speaker 6: would be like exactly what you just said, you're not putting.
Speaker 1: A finger anywhere. I am not going for as.
Speaker 6: But again, technology and so many other things have taken
Speaker 6: you know, precedents now to help. I also choose the
Speaker 6: mortality read. You know, we have to remember something, right,
Speaker 6: there's long, there's longevity.
Speaker 1: And then there's quality of life. If you live in long.
Speaker 6: And miserable and unhealthy and unwell, that is not quality
Speaker 6: of life. But if we are taking early action and
Speaker 6: addressing our situations and getting people involved with us and
Speaker 6: be again back to the theme, no one should be alone.
Speaker 6: If we're taking folks along with us, it feels better.
Speaker 6: Like last week, I made an appointment for not just
Speaker 6: me to go for my checkups, but for a few
Speaker 6: of the women entrepreneurs that I know, a few other
Speaker 6: women in my sphere. I said, okay, I've made a
Speaker 6: point once for us to go for our mammograms. And
Speaker 6: if you don't want a mammogram for your breast ultrasound
Speaker 6: or your exam, your hand examination, your your breast self
Speaker 6: examination being done by a nurse practition or a nurse.
Speaker 6: I said, so we go in right, and I called
Speaker 6: the clinic, I made the reservation and we went together.
Speaker 6: Because sometimes as well, you may want to do it,
Speaker 6: but you may want some company.
Speaker 1: The nice thing is.
Speaker 6: That we've all been getting our results back and like
Speaker 6: big kids, now we're sending each other what'sapp screenshots of
Speaker 6: our results. Thankfully, we've gotten good results, good outcomes. But
Speaker 6: the other thing is, you know, sometimes that's where the
Speaker 6: game changes for a lot of women. But again, if
Speaker 6: you're not alone, there's no way you will go through
Speaker 6: this on your own or feeling like there's no where
Speaker 6: to turn or that there's no one to support your journey.
Speaker 6: And again, let's do it early. Let's always do it
Speaker 6: proactively and early.
Speaker 2: Yeah, perfect, Pedro. I just I'm going to come back
Speaker 2: to you very quickly before we move on, because you
Speaker 2: speak about about the fear and not going to the
Speaker 2: doctor for whatever reason. Tell us, I mean you're a man.
Speaker 2: What are some of the hindrance for men going and
Speaker 2: checking whether it's cancel or any other thing. Because our
Speaker 2: men are notorious like that. What are some of the
Speaker 2: thoughts or the hingances in your opinion that prevents our
Speaker 2: men from from doing these necessary health checks. Just to
Speaker 2: put you on the strength as our man on the team.
Speaker 5: Oh no, I don't mind being on the spot. I
Speaker 5: think honest truth hones. Truth is that a lot of
Speaker 5: times the minute of the you know, the worker brings
Speaker 5: home them, you know, the money, you know, it works out.
Speaker 5: But they feel like if they they can't get sick,
Speaker 5: so they get sick. But then they just hide it.
Speaker 5: They act like they're not sick, and they just keep
Speaker 5: pushing through, powering through because they're like, we need money,
Speaker 5: we need to pay the bills. If I get sick,
Speaker 5: who's going to pay the bills, Who's going to do this,
Speaker 5: Who's going to do that? That's part of the mindset
Speaker 5: of a man of a man thinking today. Another thing
Speaker 5: is they just don't like doctors. We just don't like doctors.
Speaker 5: Sometimes we just don't want to go to the dentist.
Speaker 5: We don't want to go get a eyes checked, We
Speaker 5: don't want to go, you know, get a jilly check up,
Speaker 5: like they say you get the car checked every year,
Speaker 5: you should get your body check. It's just I think
Speaker 5: it's such a generational circle that it's been happening for
Speaker 5: so long. It's just a really hard thing to break.
Speaker 5: Men just men just have that that that stigma in
Speaker 5: their head that they're not supposed to get sick. So
Speaker 5: when they do actually get sick, they just think, I'll
Speaker 5: just take the rubbertesting, I'll just take you know, some
Speaker 5: natural remedies. I'll just take some pills and I'll be okay.
Speaker 5: And then next thing they know, it's too late. They
Speaker 5: have full blown cancer, they have full blown any disease
Speaker 5: they may have. And then now they're almost incapacitated because
Speaker 5: they did not, you know, as soon as they felt
Speaker 5: something go get checked. Yeah, And that's I mean that
Speaker 5: to me as a male, that would be my Every
Speaker 5: mail may have a different reason, but for me, that's
Speaker 5: what I feel as a male. That's what we do.
Speaker 5: I work in healthcare and I still don't like going
Speaker 5: to the doctor. I hate going to the hospital. I mean,
Speaker 5: I I book, I had an accident and I smashed.
Speaker 5: I smashed. I got a booken pelvic bone, wrist and
Speaker 5: three ribs and I only stayed in the hospital a
Speaker 5: week because I hated it so much. But in hindsight,
Speaker 5: I should have stayed longer and actually healed, but I
Speaker 5: didn't give my self a chance to heal. So then
Speaker 5: further down the road, I'm, you know, having some hip problems.
Speaker 5: My hips kind of swelled every now, and you know,
Speaker 5: I should have stayed in and healed myself a little
Speaker 5: bit better than that. So it's just we just have
Speaker 5: the stigma like I don't want to be here is
Speaker 5: you know, I just don't, you know, So we just don't.
Speaker 5: We tried not to be in situations we don't want
Speaker 5: to be in, even though sometimes it's best to just
Speaker 5: take a minute and rest. And I thought the same
Speaker 5: thing with it was the same thing my job. I
Speaker 5: got to get back to work. I got to provide
Speaker 5: for the family. If I don't work, I don't get paid.
Speaker 5: You know. It was all those things, like he was
Speaker 5: only give me non vacation days, so I was like,
Speaker 5: that's all I got, and I got to get back
Speaker 5: to work, like you know. So it's it's so many
Speaker 5: different it's so many different factors, but more likely it's
Speaker 5: most likely be that factor.
Speaker 2: I just I mean Nicole, you mentioned it, and it's
Speaker 2: so important, so critical our support system, because we've got
Speaker 2: to look out for each other in terms of the women,
Speaker 2: encouraging our men in our circles to get checked, to
Speaker 2: you know, go to the hospital if they're sick, to
Speaker 2: find out things early enough that it can make a difference.
Speaker 2: And similarly, you mentioned Pedro about your girls. It's being
Speaker 2: attentive understanding that you have a role to play as
Speaker 2: well in terms of encouraging the women in your circle,
Speaker 2: the women in our lives, to get checked, to be
Speaker 2: familiar with their body, to be comfortable with their body
Speaker 2: so that they can pick up and recognize any changes
Speaker 2: that might need urgent attention or looking into investigating. So
Speaker 2: we really have to look out for each other. It's
Speaker 2: not for any one person. I mean telling my husband,
Speaker 2: you know what, it's okay, we'll manage, we'll get through,
Speaker 2: We'll get through financial and otherwise. But I need you
Speaker 2: to take care of you. These are important conversations that
Speaker 2: we need to keep having, need to keep having. I'm
Speaker 2: going to take a little break and then we're going
Speaker 2: to come back to have a conversation with Lovetta, who's
Speaker 2: been so patient and waiting in the wings we were
Speaker 2: talking about, and I thought, Petrol, that was an excellent
Speaker 2: point to bring Levetta in. You're talking about our girls, Nicole,
Speaker 2: you mentioned noticing differences in your breast test. You're at nine.
Speaker 2: Lovetta is a young person and maybe immediately you would
Speaker 2: not think she should have to deal with breast cancer.
Speaker 2: I don't know if we've gone away from thinking it's
Speaker 2: age related or only the old suffer from breath breast
Speaker 2: cancer or need to be aware of their bodies. But
Speaker 2: case in point with Levetta, and I'm looking forward to
Speaker 2: hearing her story. But she's young and may not have
Speaker 2: been paying that attention or thought she needed to pay
Speaker 2: that kind of attention. Let's hear from her what her
Speaker 2: journey has been like. And Nicole, then you can obviously
Speaker 2: piggyback on what she said, and she has some insight
Speaker 2: from your perspective. Let's take a break and then we'll
Speaker 2: come back and speak to Love Better.
Speaker 4: Bring us back.
Speaker 2: Right, So we've come back from the break and we're
Speaker 2: talking breast cancer. We've got Nicole, Joseph Chin on the
Speaker 2: line with us, and also Love Better, so young cancer
Speaker 2: by all accounts, breast cancer survivor. Angela. You mentioned in
Speaker 2: the break that you've got some steps that sort of
Speaker 2: highlight the fact that breast cancer happens at every age.
Speaker 3: Yes, and also I mean breast cancer, interestingly enough, is
Speaker 3: the most common cancer in the UK. And as you
Speaker 3: took put your stats before, this is according to breast
Speaker 3: Cancer Now the ORG, women's diagnosed every ten minutes and
Speaker 3: around fifty five thousand women and four hundred men are
Speaker 3: diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK. Similar
Speaker 3: thing it figures globally as well, the second most common
Speaker 3: cancer in the US.
Speaker 4: And again you know, it's the higher prevalence.
Speaker 3: And it is common more commonly sort of diagnosed in
Speaker 3: older women. Eighty percent of breast cancers occurring women over
Speaker 3: the age of fifty, and most men who get breast
Speaker 3: cancer will be over the age of sixty.
Speaker 4: The higher prevalence in women, and.
Speaker 3: There's quite a lot of and maybe Nicole can maybe
Speaker 3: speak to this later in terms of the ethnic disparities,
Speaker 3: of disparities between ethnic groups as well. You know, some
Speaker 3: groups have got a higher prevalence, survival rates and what
Speaker 3: have you as well, and the fact that possibly you
Speaker 3: can't necessarily change and you could increase your risk is
Speaker 3: maybe having a family history of breast cancer as well.
Speaker 3: But the age, the age concept, and again we often
Speaker 3: think of in many of these illnesses and cancers as
Speaker 3: something that as you get, as you get older, it
Speaker 3: should often be a challenge because the agent wish that
Speaker 3: you actually get sent, you know, to have your mammograms
Speaker 3: in your checks is usually much older. And sometimes when
Speaker 3: you might think, oh, something doesn't feel quite right, you
Speaker 3: may go to your doctors and they kind of potentially
Speaker 3: sometimes could brush brush was sure have you because you
Speaker 3: know old enough and what have you? So, which is
Speaker 3: quite interesting. But that'll obviously said, was bring us nicely
Speaker 3: in to introduce Levettter to share her story as to
Speaker 3: you know, how things transpired for her and her Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I like the idea of the breast journey as
Speaker 3: it were, as Nicolas talked about that. So Levetta, thank
Speaker 3: you for joining us. Tell us a little bit about
Speaker 3: yourself and yeah and what you do, and tell us
Speaker 3: a little bit about your story.
Speaker 7: Okay, good evening, good night, as the same lenains Lovettter,
Speaker 7: I just to correct then you're just a little bit
Speaker 7: I am a self survivor. I'm not quite quite.
Speaker 8: The clear I am.
Speaker 7: You know, I just turned forty actually in August, which
Speaker 7: was a good, great milestone.
Speaker 4: And.
Speaker 7: I am taking it one day at a time.
Speaker 2: M hm.
Speaker 7: As they say, but in my with regards to my story.
Speaker 8: M hm.
Speaker 7: I actually most of the time, my friends and my family,
Speaker 7: they know that I've been sick for a while. Excluding
Speaker 7: the breast cancer I've been, I've been sick for a while.
Speaker 7: I've had psychodosis. Well. I've also had two ship of placements,
Speaker 7: both hips. I am on the as the spectrum. So yeah,
Speaker 7: I have a whole list of medical conditions. But it
Speaker 7: wasn't until uh, probably the year after COVID twenty twenty one,
Speaker 7: when my dad was was ill, he had been hospitalized,
Speaker 7: that you know, I started to feel we went back.
Speaker 7: I went back to checking actually, you know, my breasts.
Speaker 7: And I was saying, because as an Angela and Nicole
Speaker 7: and pedis, it's good to check. It's always good to check,
Speaker 7: especially for a woman when you start, when you start
Speaker 7: getting into the probably a late teens. I would say,
Speaker 7: you checked chart checking more.
Speaker 2: And you used to sorry to cut you, Sorry to
Speaker 2: cut you? Is that you're are you saying that's your experience.
Speaker 2: Is that you that you were checking all along.
Speaker 7: Yes, I was checking all along, and then you know
Speaker 7: it's so, you know, so you sort of life get
Speaker 7: in the way and you kind of, you know, all
Speaker 7: that goes to the back of your mind as you know,
Speaker 7: you're either going to school or your work. You start working,
Speaker 7: so you know it doesn't come back to you. But
Speaker 7: then with the COVID stuff, I just thought, you know,
Speaker 7: start checking again, and I didn't. There was nothing for
Speaker 7: the year or so, and then my dad died and
Speaker 7: about I think about three months after m HM because
Speaker 7: I had been feeling a lump you know during that time,
Speaker 7: but I was it kept I said, I go to
Speaker 7: the GP, and I kept for getting another like, no,
Speaker 7: this time, I have to go. And I went to
Speaker 7: the GP and they put me to a nurse and
Speaker 7: the nurse said, well, you know, I wouldn't say is
Speaker 7: breast cancer, but to be on the safe side, she
Speaker 7: booked me a appointment at the hospital in the breast
Speaker 7: breast apartment. And I was like, yeah, went for all
Speaker 7: those tests and yeah, breast cancer.
Speaker 2: Were you alone and you went or what did you
Speaker 2: have someone go with you?
Speaker 7: When I was the GP, I went alone. M. And
Speaker 7: then when she said, you know, just to be on
Speaker 7: the safe side, I was like, mom, I have some
Speaker 7: news to tell you. So she went with me. We
Speaker 7: prayed before, prayed before that, and we went and while
Speaker 7: we were waiting, you know, we were to have a
Speaker 7: little prayer, and we went into the doctor and she
Speaker 7: was like, back, it's cancer. And lucky for me, it was.
Speaker 4: The like third.
Speaker 7: Third stage. It wasn't too it wasn't too far gone,
Speaker 7: but it wasn't too early either.
Speaker 5: M And.
Speaker 1: She looked so.
Speaker 7: Sympathetic. I guess, you know, is one of her when
Speaker 7: part of a job is telling you know, ladies young
Speaker 7: and old, you know they've got this thing and accustomed
Speaker 7: to them, you know, probably breaking down, I guess. But
Speaker 7: because of the some education, I wasn't in hysterics, as
Speaker 7: you would say, and I kind of made peace with
Speaker 7: the thought of, you know, there is there is the
Speaker 7: chance is a possibility of me having this.
Speaker 2: When you say, just just to clarify, when you say education,
Speaker 2: are you saying that you've you did a bit of
Speaker 2: research yourself, and you did a bit of of reading,
Speaker 2: et cetera, just to kind of find out what what
Speaker 2: this might mean for you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and you know, I researched it and read it,
Speaker 7: you know, the possible possible things that could happen, possible
Speaker 7: treatments that you know, I could be recommended or on
Speaker 7: the take. And also with my my mom was the
Speaker 7: big part of me not being as freaked out as
Speaker 7: you know somebody would be mhmm. And there was no tears,
Speaker 7: no crying. The only time I did cry was asked, Mama, glad.
Speaker 7: That was painful. That was very painful, and I was
Speaker 7: I was telling my mom, I don't want to be here,
Speaker 7: I don't like this place, but that would the odd
Speaker 7: I think that that was also a release as well,
Speaker 7: you know, trying to get me my body saying we
Speaker 7: know that you you're nice and calm, but sometimes it's
Speaker 7: good to just release any you know, earth emotions. So
Speaker 7: I am. And then in twenty twenty two, my treatment started.
Speaker 2: Okay, and what what was your treatment?
Speaker 5: Was it?
Speaker 2: Chemo?
Speaker 5: Was it?
Speaker 7: I had two months of chemo, which wasn't too bad,
Speaker 7: and then I'm months into my chemo. I started a
Speaker 7: Fresco regime which I'm still on now, which is more
Speaker 7: of a management management treatment which I have every see weeks.
Speaker 2: Okay, Nicole. Can I just ask you here, is there
Speaker 2: a change in the landscape for breast cancer? Have you
Speaker 2: noticed a change in the landscape for breast cancer over
Speaker 2: the years. Are you seeing a difference in terms of
Speaker 2: more younger persons being diagnosed? Are you seeing anti touched
Speaker 2: on that? Is there a difference in demographic and ethnicities?
Speaker 2: Are you seeing any changes in that respect?
Speaker 6: So, yes, the demographic has been constantly changing globally, globally
Speaker 6: and particularly heightened in certain socio ecn strata, specifically because
Speaker 6: of things like dietary and environmental issues. Of course, genetics
Speaker 6: play is a very key role, and in a lot
Speaker 6: of instances ethnicity too, particularly brown or mixed races, and
Speaker 6: particularly with strains of you know, different variations. So in
Speaker 6: terms of the demographic age particularly, you see younger women
Speaker 6: being diagnosed beauty about and I use the word beauty,
Speaker 6: but I don't take it lightly when I use it.
Speaker 6: But the good thing about it is that once detected
Speaker 6: early and once a category that can be treated and
Speaker 6: most can, we find that longevity starts to be.
Speaker 1: The real reality for that woman.
Speaker 6: Again, that's why it's important to do routine checks and
Speaker 6: to be self aware and to be very familiar with
Speaker 6: our bodies and to understand if something is feeling uncomfortable,
Speaker 6: we don't wait, you know, Love Thatta, I'm so glad
Speaker 6: that you took the opportunity to make sure that you
Speaker 6: were going to get screening because of a suspicion.
Speaker 1: And you know that is actually.
Speaker 6: What gives women the chance to address their health care,
Speaker 6: to walk through a manageable health care program or regime,
Speaker 6: and then to come out triumphantly, even if it means that, Okay,
Speaker 6: I now have to adjust my life, adjust my lifestyle,
Speaker 6: make some radical changes, reduce my stress levels. You know,
Speaker 6: stress has come up as one of the catalysts in
Speaker 6: most instances, in many instances, high stressed environments, high stress relationships,
Speaker 6: high stress in terms of workforce, workplace. So there's so
Speaker 6: many social, environmental, and then of course clinical facets that
Speaker 6: are all responsible collectively or all contributed. But yes, to
Speaker 6: answer your question, there have been there has been earlier diagnoses,
Speaker 6: you know, throughout many, many women who are diagnosed, and
Speaker 6: the great thing, the really really good thing is that
Speaker 6: they can be treated once detected early.
Speaker 2: And you spoke earlier about your passion for education and love.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, for sharing, and we're going to
Speaker 2: dial with a little bit more. I'm sure Anti and
Speaker 2: Petro has questions, but you spoke about that you said
Speaker 2: about being educated and how that helped you to prepare
Speaker 2: for the moment. I mean, you were hopeful that it wasn't,
Speaker 2: but you are also realistic that it could have been,
Speaker 2: and you did the research, you understood what this might
Speaker 2: mean for you, and therefore you were less overwhelmed, less hysterical,
Speaker 2: and obviously, obviously we're going to touch on that you're
Speaker 2: a woman of faith. Your mom is such such a
Speaker 2: prayer warrior, and I'm certain that had a lot to
Speaker 2: do with them and how you have journeyed through this process. Angie,
Speaker 2: sorry losing my voice, Angie Pedro, do you have any
Speaker 2: questions for at this point?
Speaker 3: Solah, thank you so much for sharing your story and
Speaker 3: your experience in this. Just to go back to when
Speaker 3: you first as you mentioned, when you first received your diagnosis,
Speaker 3: you know you weren't necessarily hysterics, But going forward, what
Speaker 3: has been that sort of suppose for you, what has
Speaker 3: been the hardest part of this journey, maybe in those
Speaker 3: kind of initial periods of diagnosis and starting treatment, what's
Speaker 3: been the hardest thing for you so far, would you say.
Speaker 7: So, it's mostly the increase in appointments, scans. I have
Speaker 7: to have scans in my eyes, blood tests and echo
Speaker 7: every three months to make sure that my heart is
Speaker 7: up to the job of all the treatments that I'm getting,
Speaker 7: so is yeah, and then you know, if it's not,
Speaker 7: then what happens? Then do I have to stop the treatments?
Speaker 7: And something happened, else happened. So it was you know,
Speaker 7: it's stress with a little bit in that regard, and
Speaker 7: then telling telling the rest of my family because at
Speaker 7: the moment only because during my dad died before my diagnosis, Yes,
Speaker 7: he died in the year of my diagnosis, right, So yeah,
Speaker 7: it was it was a bit you know, you know
Speaker 7: here and there, and also yeah, most of my family
Speaker 7: either at the Caribbean nor America, so tell them as well.
Speaker 7: And then getting my you know, telling my mom on
Speaker 7: top of you know, her lids and her husband.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 7: It was a bit of overwhelming in that respect. And
Speaker 7: then my sister, my younger sister is also she's studying,
Speaker 7: but she's not studying in the UK. She's studying in
Speaker 7: South Korea, so she couldn't even be there in some
Speaker 7: place I was, you know, comforting her because she could
Speaker 7: be there.
Speaker 4: For me, right right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so important that the support network that we have.
Speaker 2: And I think it was Nicole who mentioned it earlier
Speaker 2: that sometimes with a diagnosis you feel more like a burden.
Speaker 2: You feel like you're the one, you know now depending
Speaker 2: so much on your family and I'm needing so much
Speaker 2: that you become a burden and that that is a
Speaker 2: difficult process or a difficult feeling. So yeah, mentioning that
Speaker 2: and recognizing that, I'm certain must be must have been
Speaker 2: have been hard on top of whatever else you were
Speaker 2: going through, in particular loss of your dad.
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, sorry, you know the automatic response
Speaker 7: if somebody asks you, oh, are you play some fine?
Speaker 7: Oh I'm good, And because I've been sick so much,
Speaker 7: that was my response, you know, I if I'm feeling
Speaker 7: okay on that day, I'm like, of course, you know,
Speaker 7: I'm fine, I'm good. But my family has been so
Speaker 7: tuned to me and so supportive that they know any nuance,
Speaker 7: they know the nuances of the arm fines, so they
Speaker 7: will delve into if they if they find a particular nuance,
Speaker 7: I don't know I don't know it myself, but they
Speaker 7: seem to to have caught on to something. They will do,
Speaker 7: they will dig in a little bit more. They you know,
Speaker 7: are you in pain or is there is there something?
Speaker 7: Are you feeling naughtseo or are you you're feeling a
Speaker 7: bit sick dizzy? So, you know, having being close to
Speaker 7: family is also one of the big things I would say,
Speaker 7: is you know, it's one thing that you want to have,
Speaker 7: especially when you're going through something like this.
Speaker 2: M hmm.
Speaker 3: It's interesting to say that because my next question was
Speaker 3: kind of going to be, you know, my theme for
Speaker 3: this month, know one she'd face breast cancer alone. I
Speaker 3: was going to ask you what does that theme mean
Speaker 3: to you personally and how does that how would that
Speaker 3: innate with you? And you've kind of mentioned that obviously,
Speaker 3: you know, having family and a strong support system around you,
Speaker 3: But is there anything else that you would add when
Speaker 3: you sort of think about that theme.
Speaker 7: It's having the peace of mind to know, you know,
Speaker 7: stuff is going to happen in life mm hmm. And
Speaker 7: it's either you wail up wail about it, or you
Speaker 7: take refuge in you know what God has promised that
Speaker 7: you'll never be alone. Even if you don't have family
Speaker 7: at this time or friends around you at this time,
Speaker 7: you won't be alone.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 7: So yeah, a lot of people ask me, how are
Speaker 7: you so calm? Like why would I not be? And
Speaker 7: what would be the point of me stressing out anyway?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 7: So that's that's my little.
Speaker 5: Thing I learned. I learned a long time ago that
Speaker 5: stress will actually cost more harm than good. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 5: it's hard to not stress, but with what you're going through,
Speaker 5: if you stress, you'll just get sicker. It's like it's
Speaker 5: years ago. I read this book and the first line
Speaker 5: in the book was that stress kills you more. Stress
Speaker 5: is a number one killer, more than heart attack, more
Speaker 5: than drugs, more than anything in this world. Stress is
Speaker 5: the writing factor that can cause you to lose your life,
Speaker 5: you know, to make the whatever you're having progress faster.
Speaker 5: Angela kind of still like done that because I was
Speaker 5: going to ask you that question, what would you say
Speaker 5: as a person that has is going through this? So
Speaker 5: I guess I rephrase it like this, what would you say?
Speaker 5: What would you say to a person that has been
Speaker 5: diagnosed recently that may be feeling like they said, like,
Speaker 5: you know, they're more of a burden than a than
Speaker 5: anything else. What would be your advice to them, and
Speaker 5: the importance of what you kind of touched on it
Speaker 5: with your family being there for you, the importance of
Speaker 5: the family helping you to understand. But yet is it harder?
Speaker 5: Is it harder for you to accept the help because
Speaker 5: you know, sometimes people don't accept help. Is it harder
Speaker 5: for you to accept the help or me?
Speaker 7: Pers me personally? I accept all help if I can.
Speaker 7: It's just like most people, they don't. I would prefer
Speaker 7: to be asked most sometimes, especially if it's like a
Speaker 7: simple thing, you know, ask, you know, ask, because some
Speaker 7: people just assume that maybe you know, you want this
Speaker 7: help or you need this help when you know you're
Speaker 7: okay doing it on your own. But you may say, okay,
Speaker 7: you know such a you know social and such, can
Speaker 7: you just help me with this? Some people, yeah, when
Speaker 7: they think that they are bred it is because some
Speaker 7: people just rush to help them without asking, or they think,
Speaker 7: you know, I don't don't want to ask because then
Speaker 7: I feel guilty that they have to come, as you know,
Speaker 7: take time out of their time and help me. Whereas
Speaker 7: if you the person who's feeling a burden doesn't understand
Speaker 7: that who is helping them, especially their family would feel
Speaker 7: even more burden or more guilty not helping, because then
Speaker 7: you're like, oh, you know, if something happens, especially when
Speaker 7: they're sick, and they don't tell their family or their friends,
Speaker 7: and then either they pass away or they get sicker
Speaker 7: or you know, in the hospitalized, then their friends and something,
Speaker 7: they're like, how can I not know? How did I
Speaker 7: not know? And I see them every day? How did
Speaker 7: I not know? So it's best, I would say, it's
Speaker 7: best to tell them and then maybe you can go through. Okay,
Speaker 7: this is what help I would need, or this is
Speaker 7: what help I would prefer, instead of you not just
Speaker 7: saying I don't want to. I don't want to say
Speaker 7: anything because I don't want to. No, inconvenience them in a.
Speaker 5: Way, right, so that the person should actually should ask
Speaker 5: the person what they need instead of assuming you know
Speaker 5: what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah about having conversations is what I'm getting. Just having
Speaker 2: conversations establish what, what's what's good, what's not, what I
Speaker 2: would like, what I won't like, what would work for me.
Speaker 2: We don't often have those conversations that we shy away
Speaker 2: from them.
Speaker 5: It's kind of like what we learned when we did
Speaker 5: the program on grief. That's why they're just not saying
Speaker 5: the the first thing that comes out your mouth, but
Speaker 5: actually like ask a question and I actually listen to
Speaker 5: the person to what they're saying, yeah, yeah, and then
Speaker 5: acting on what they ask for, even if you don't
Speaker 5: agree with it, because I think sometimes too people think, oh,
Speaker 5: that's not what she wants, she wants this, so they
Speaker 5: do what they think you want. It's not what you want,
Speaker 5: and then you're like, I didn't ask for that. Then
Speaker 5: they get irritated be like, but that's not what I
Speaker 5: ask for. So it's kind of like that same concept
Speaker 5: in that sense.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And also then you know, sometimes when you ask
Speaker 7: how are you, you know, how are you you okay? Some
Speaker 7: people they just say how are you okay? And they
Speaker 7: don't even wait for the answer. So I've had that
Speaker 7: issu experience, like I've wanted to say something, you know,
Speaker 7: like oh I'm not feeling that good, or to just
Speaker 7: have a little talk with somebody. I mean, ask how
Speaker 7: are you okay? You know, how are you? And I'm like,
Speaker 7: and they didn't even wait for me to to take
Speaker 7: a breath. To report your client they've gone at the door,
Speaker 7: and I'm like, oh, okay, I'll just you know, to
Speaker 7: take it that. It's always if you ask somebody if
Speaker 7: they're okay, especially if you know that they're sick or
Speaker 7: you just recently land that they're ill. You know, even
Speaker 7: if you're in a rush, just wait for that little
Speaker 7: poor let's have a little pause. You know, they might say,
Speaker 7: you know, or today it wasn't too good. And then
Speaker 7: you know, maybe even if it's just five minutes, say okay, oh,
Speaker 7: you know, give me a call or I'll call you.
Speaker 7: And then so when when you have more time later,
Speaker 7: then you can actually have that response. You just say
Speaker 7: then to not let them even take a breath before
Speaker 7: they respond. So that was one that was one of
Speaker 7: the I think that was one of the the things
Speaker 7: that got me a little bit down when when you know,
Speaker 7: especially when I got diagnosed with breast cancer.
Speaker 2: M because can I can I ask you to jump
Speaker 2: in here and kind of talk from your own experience
Speaker 2: and the work that you do. What are some of
Speaker 2: the issues that you see our women who are suffering
Speaker 2: with breast cancer present in terms of their support network.
Speaker 2: What are some of the things they're saying, are they
Speaker 2: getting support? Is it difficult to get support? How would
Speaker 2: you advise persons like theveter or persons who are supporting
Speaker 2: people with breast cancer. How do you navigate that space?
Speaker 6: So, first of all, there are a few layers of
Speaker 6: support that we must look at. So I remember when
Speaker 6: I started doing my work many years ago. One of
Speaker 6: the things that I found in my consultancy, because we
Speaker 6: do a consult a consultation and most times when a
Speaker 6: woman came into a consulting space, when we asked a
Speaker 6: certain question, she did not have the answers, and that
Speaker 6: brought me to a point of feeling very, very sad
Speaker 6: about where this was going to end up, not so
Speaker 6: much for her treatment, but for her rehabilitative journey. And
Speaker 6: so some of those questions are really not questions that
Speaker 6: I asked in a day.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: So I had to come up with a way to
Speaker 6: make sure that whilst I was asking those questions, I
Speaker 6: wasn't imposing some additional level of discomfort to most women.
Speaker 6: And when that happened, I recognized I had some extra
Speaker 6: work to do. And one of the things that I
Speaker 6: do very well is I look for gaps and in
Speaker 6: finding those gaps, especially in mainstream post surgical care and
Speaker 6: that kind of thing. When I find the gaps, what
Speaker 6: I do is I fill it with a solution. I'm
Speaker 6: not going to be dredged, you know, dwelling on the problem.
Speaker 6: I find a way to create a solution. So funny enough,
Speaker 6: yesterday was the the twentieth of this This month was
Speaker 6: actually the fourteenth anniversary of a book that I created
Speaker 6: called The Treatment Companion. And what that did was it
Speaker 6: added an additional layer of care, documentation, self awareness that
Speaker 6: could be expressed inside of a journal, so to speak.
Speaker 6: And what that does and what that has done over
Speaker 6: the years, is it gives the woman a companion that
Speaker 6: she can literally have immediately at hand. It is easy
Speaker 6: to use. It could fit in a pocket book. It's
Speaker 6: you know, pocket size for ease of use. When I
Speaker 6: said pocket like a handbag size. And the other thing
Speaker 6: it does is it also helps the entire social and
Speaker 6: clinical support community because she can then I mean, one
Speaker 6: of the things that we know happens is brain fog
Speaker 6: and overwhelm, and so in that sphere of Wellman brain fog,
Speaker 6: a woman can now use this tool. And I love
Speaker 6: creating tools and we've created a lot she can use
Speaker 6: this tool to now navigate her journey of treatment, recovery,
Speaker 6: and rehabilitation. And so when she uses this, even if
Speaker 6: she has to refer to something that was totally in
Speaker 6: her mind at the tirement is not totally out because
Speaker 6: oh my gosh, I forgot. This tool has been able
Speaker 6: to help become a reference tool where I can go
Speaker 6: back to my doctor and if my doctor asks, okay,
Speaker 6: so what was that feeling like, I have a documentation
Speaker 6: of what that feeling was like last Tuesday or ten
Speaker 6: tuesdays ago, because of course this is part of my
Speaker 6: recovery journey and my treatment. So again, if my family
Speaker 6: or family member wants to reference something and I am
Speaker 6: not able to recall or to go back to it, now,
Speaker 6: my family can use this tool, my caregivers can use
Speaker 6: this tool, my clinicians can use this tool, and I
Speaker 6: can use this tool.
Speaker 1: So that was one of the things I did.
Speaker 6: Because what we find as well is that there are
Speaker 6: support communities. There could be like physical support communities, like
Speaker 6: let's say a support group, there's always that family support
Speaker 6: and many times, you know, when we have a kind
Speaker 6: I'm speaking from my perspective now, when we have a consultation,
Speaker 6: sometimes the family, the entire family comes. I would give
Speaker 6: you a beautiful story. I like to give beautiful stories.
Speaker 6: Last year, a mother in law called me. She said,
Speaker 6: my daughter in law was diagnosed breast cancer. So they
Speaker 6: made the appointment to come. When they came, the mother
Speaker 6: in law came, the husband came, her sister came, her
Speaker 6: mother came, She came, and their nine year old son came.
Speaker 6: And we had been taking care of them with all
Speaker 6: the post surgical apparatus that they need, everything that they require.
Speaker 6: And one of the things I like to do as
Speaker 6: well is when when I am in the area, if
Speaker 6: I am closed by your house, I'm going to come
Speaker 6: and visit you.
Speaker 1: Of course I will call first. So she told me
Speaker 1: about you.
Speaker 6: So I'd seen her for like about a year already
Speaker 6: by that time, and one day she called me and
Speaker 6: she said, I have some news for you, you know,
Speaker 6: but I want to see you and what I want
Speaker 6: to tell you, and you know, in in your presence.
Speaker 1: I want to be physically present.
Speaker 6: So I had a meeting down it isn't she was
Speaker 6: in the south of vieland I had a meeting down south,
Speaker 6: and I decided.
Speaker 7: Let me go.
Speaker 6: And when I passed by to see her, she said
Speaker 6: to me, and this was after chemo, after radiation, after
Speaker 6: a mastectomy, of course, she said to me, I am pregnant.
Speaker 6: I am expecting our second child. So you know, I
Speaker 6: was literally I was excited, I was ecstatic, I was prayerful,
Speaker 6: I was thankful.
Speaker 1: We were all grateful.
Speaker 6: But again, that support system she brought literally when she
Speaker 6: came for her consultation, she brought her entire support system.
Speaker 6: But besides her bringing them, theyre brought her because they
Speaker 6: were literally carrying her through this journey. And you see
Speaker 6: that a lot. You see that a lot, you mean.
Speaker 6: Levetta talked about her mom being there with her. She
Speaker 6: also talked about her faith inside of the journey, and
Speaker 6: we cannot negate faith inside of this as well, we
Speaker 6: have to make sure that we also recognize the value
Speaker 6: that faith plays in this. So the support is, again,
Speaker 6: as I said earlier, at many layers. So it's your faith,
Speaker 6: it's your family, it's your friendships, because some people, their
Speaker 6: friends are really that community. It might be your co workers,
Speaker 6: it might be your village, and then it might be
Speaker 6: that co heart of people who have a like minded
Speaker 6: experience or similar lived experience. It might be survivors like yourself.
Speaker 6: So support is critical, it is important.
Speaker 1: It takes on many features. Some people will tell you.
Speaker 6: I know a man who said, I don't want to
Speaker 6: be in a support group because everyone might talk to
Speaker 6: women and a group that get me depressed, They get
Speaker 6: me upset, they get me angry. So I don't want
Speaker 6: to be in a support group. But guess what, I
Speaker 6: have lovely books, I can read, I have my prayers,
Speaker 6: I have my faith community. Some of them would say,
Speaker 6: you know, I go to the beach. So again, that support,
Speaker 6: besides human beings and besides being in you know, palpable
Speaker 6: ways that we can acknowledge and recognize, it might also
Speaker 6: be some people's inward strength. It might be some people's
Speaker 6: will power. And I am going to tell you about
Speaker 6: two women. I'm going to share this about two survivors
Speaker 6: that I have. Three actually, let me bring three of
Speaker 6: them into this conversation. One of them is two of
Speaker 6: them are named Cheryl, and I actually call a detail
Speaker 6: of two Cheryls. One Cheryl she had been diagnosed and
Speaker 6: she always talks about her three breast cancer adventures because
Speaker 6: she was diagnosed and then she was diagnosed a few
Speaker 6: years later later, so she's had over the years of
Speaker 6: double or bilateral masterectomy, but not immediately and with previous
Speaker 6: you know, with with with a gap between her diagnoses.
Speaker 6: But Cheryl, I remember one time came to me with
Speaker 6: her doctor's order, her doctor's prescription, and this was to
Speaker 6: get her medical things because right after her surgery, my
Speaker 6: lady decided she wanted to travel and she wanted to
Speaker 6: go abroad to do some training in her field of work.
Speaker 6: And she asked her doctor, her surgeon, you know, and
Speaker 6: he gave for the okay. Of course, he gave for
Speaker 6: the okay with a look. And then he said, well,
Speaker 6: I have to go by miss Profit because she has
Speaker 6: to take of you before you travel. So that's the
Speaker 6: first Cheryl. She is now a survivor for more than
Speaker 6: a decade. I would say it's probably about eighteen years.
Speaker 6: We've been taking care of Cheryl, and interestingly enough, we've
Speaker 6: actually seen multiple generations of her family, not due to
Speaker 6: breast cancer, but due to our bra fitting work. And
Speaker 6: then there's the other Cheryl who actually this year, just
Speaker 6: about two months ago, was representing Trinidad and Tobago, her
Speaker 6: country of birth at the Master's Olympics. And again that's
Speaker 6: because she is a champion in her fear of athletics,
Speaker 6: and she is sixty eight. But she is also again
Speaker 6: because of one her support network, her faith and her
Speaker 6: family and community and her mind, you know, being very
Speaker 6: very challenged by doing things such as athletics and keeping active.
Speaker 1: She was in was it Sweden? Throw and shot put on?
Speaker 6: Discuss fordad and Tobago, right, And the other woman is Barbara,
Speaker 6: and Barbara is a is a top of strength. When
Speaker 6: I talked to Barbara, Barbara gives me all the courage
Speaker 6: because again she has been I remember when she was
Speaker 6: diagnosed and she was going for chemo. She had long
Speaker 6: dread locks down to her hips. And she is a judge,
Speaker 6: you know, she's actually in the judiciary, but she would
Speaker 6: go to Keemoon.
Speaker 1: And go to court and I'm like, what of where
Speaker 1: power and stamina do you have?
Speaker 6: But again it was inside and then it was around,
Speaker 6: you know, So it's a combination. And I'm never going
Speaker 6: to challenge a woman who says she can't do it,
Speaker 6: or she doesn't have the strength, or she doesn't have
Speaker 6: the courage, or she doesn't have the support because it's real,
Speaker 6: but there are layers, and there are layers that make
Speaker 6: us feel that women really are, in fact superheroes. That's it, superheroes.
Speaker 2: I want to say, I agree, Yes, I love that
Speaker 2: we are in arguing here we are, we are, we
Speaker 2: are so much so that probably we don't get the
Speaker 2: gear and we don't seek the help that we need.
Speaker 2: And that's maybe the flip side to it. But absolutely
Speaker 2: I give every woman they came absolutely. Thank you very much, Nicole.
Speaker 2: I think what we'll do now is just flip into
Speaker 2: some of the myths I'm surrounding breast cancer, and I
Speaker 2: want to start by asking, Love. I know I've been
Speaker 2: bringing you in a lot of the conversation, so thank
Speaker 2: you for staying with us. What what surprised you most?
Speaker 2: You said you educated yourself, you prepared yourself, or or
Speaker 2: what you thought would be this breast cancer journey. Has
Speaker 2: there been any surprise? Is anything that you thought you'd
Speaker 2: noticed but it didn't happen as you thought it would.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know when we talked cancer, we talked
Speaker 2: you know, hear loss, so we talk about being weak
Speaker 2: and and warn and not being able to eat and
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff. Did you see that. Did
Speaker 2: you not? Did that surprise you? What?
Speaker 7: What?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 2: What are some of the things that you didn't expect
Speaker 2: to see that you saw or vice versa.
Speaker 7: Well, I didn't spread.
Speaker 2: Let me tell it. Can I just say before you
Speaker 2: continue love that, I just want to let our listeners
Speaker 2: know that you very much accepted the invitation last minute
Speaker 2: to come on here, and I thought that's so grave.
Speaker 2: Thank you, very very very much. I know we we
Speaker 2: didn't have any pre conversations. You didn't have any pre
Speaker 2: you know, any warning or anything like that. So you've
Speaker 2: come on and you've just decided, you know what you're
Speaker 2: You're willing to talk about this and hopefully encourage someone.
Speaker 2: So I want to make sure that the listeners understand
Speaker 2: where you come from here. And I want to thank
Speaker 2: you again for willing.
Speaker 7: Your phone call. I thought it was like a catch
Speaker 7: up phone call, but it was an invitation phone call.
Speaker 2: It was an invitation about five minutes ago. But yes, anyway,
Speaker 2: tell me what what surprised you about the breast cancer?
Speaker 7: I did hear loss? Actually I went down to what
Speaker 7: my little brother called baby Ostrich here and yeah, he
Speaker 7: actually he actually helped me. I tried to keep it
Speaker 7: as long as possible. But one day I was brushing it,
Speaker 7: not even roughly, just gently, and it was coming out
Speaker 7: in clubs. So I was like, Okay, it's time to go.
Speaker 7: But yeah, my she's not. She wasn't the on collogist.
Speaker 7: She was the breath counter specialist.
Speaker 4: She was.
Speaker 7: She was very much. When I went in for my consort,
Speaker 7: she will say, you know, you will you lose your
Speaker 7: hair if you do get chemo, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 7: that's fine, and she she was. I think she was
Speaker 7: surprised at the the level of the calmnces, which I accepted.
Speaker 7: Here lost So I was like, because I told her, no,
Speaker 7: I look, I look great in wigs. I have a
Speaker 7: whole week collection. Don't worry about that. So that was that.
Speaker 7: But the I think one of the unexpected things was
Speaker 7: I got insomnia so I could go. It was like
Speaker 7: the whole days would I sleep maybe one or two hours? Okay,
Speaker 7: so you don't really hear that, No, you hear more. Yeah,
Speaker 7: but yeah, I got. But sometimes I'll be it'll be five,
Speaker 7: my mam or whoever will go to sleep, run about nine,
Speaker 7: but I'll be up until it's light again the next morning,
Speaker 7: so until the next morning and maybe then sleep with
Speaker 7: an hour and then get up again. Were worried that
Speaker 7: was what it was.
Speaker 2: It's you do you think that's what it was?
Speaker 6: So I.
Speaker 7: Did, I did, you know. I did talk to my
Speaker 7: ecologists about that. Who was who was a very nice man.
Speaker 7: He was doctor. He was so good. He is very
Speaker 7: supportive as well. And one of the first things he
Speaker 7: asked when we came in me and my mom was
Speaker 7: do we believe in God? So my mom was like, no,
Speaker 7: this is the doctor to have. Yes, he is one
Speaker 7: to have. But yeah, and so he said, as long
Speaker 7: as you're you know, you don't feel any excessive tiredness
Speaker 7: after that or and you're not you yourself are not
Speaker 7: worried about that, and you're getting at least some sleep,
Speaker 7: he said, it's it's a bit normal. So he said
Speaker 7: some yes, some people do have it. Now I'm back,
Speaker 7: I will sleep at night. My body is like nope,
Speaker 7: Now nine o'clock comes and like time to go to bed.
Speaker 2: Okay, well we'll make sure that you're you're ready for
Speaker 2: bed soon. We'll keep it too much longer.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, And that thing, that's what's the only thing,
Speaker 7: was yeah, insomnia, and it wasn't lack of appetite, but
Speaker 7: I would eat and get tired or let me halfway
Speaker 7: through a meal and my body is like, you have
Speaker 7: to rest.
Speaker 2: H Yeah, I've heard of that as well.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, that was surprising to me. I was like, oh,
Speaker 7: sometime I take two or three spoonfuls of or something
Speaker 7: and then verry, I have to wait a bit or
Speaker 7: have a lit a nap before I have to eat again.
Speaker 7: So yeah, that was that was the only thing that
Speaker 7: was unexpected that I would.
Speaker 2: Say, Nicole, can I bring you back in then? And
Speaker 2: can otherwise?
Speaker 7: That most of the things I had read about.
Speaker 2: Read about okay, fair enough Nicole, And of course, of course.
Speaker 5: I got the name Lovetta. You should get kids, right? No, yeah,
Speaker 5: said again, No, you asked the question. I did ask
Speaker 5: a question, but I don't remember, and I don't know
Speaker 5: if I should ask it. No, she doesn't have kids, Okay,
Speaker 5: I don't know, I don't. I'm sorry, then the question
Speaker 5: applied it. I don't know why I thought you said
Speaker 5: earlier when I was listening, so I apologize. Maybe it's
Speaker 5: I'm getting them confused. Hey boy, my apologies.
Speaker 2: That's okay. I was just asking Nicole if she you
Speaker 2: know what other metal or or in educating our listeners,
Speaker 2: what what should they prepare for or what might be
Speaker 2: surprising to them in terms of what usually is told
Speaker 2: in terms of breast cancer but may not be as
Speaker 2: applicable now as it was before. Or then what's some
Speaker 2: of the myths?
Speaker 6: Right, So some of the therapies, truly, everybody's experience or
Speaker 6: response might be different. And then with most of them,
Speaker 6: there are common factors in those therapies, like most chemo
Speaker 6: drugs will induce hair loss. Of course they'll be medical
Speaker 6: menopause or clinical menopause due to uh some of the
Speaker 6: medications and treatments, and so there are these realities. But
Speaker 6: of course every woman would respond differently. I remember the
Speaker 6: very Sherry, the one, the one who had her three
Speaker 6: breast cancer adventures. I remember her. She went shopping for wigs,
Speaker 6: and she always gives this a whig story, right, and
Speaker 6: her dream was always away of blond wig. She bought
Speaker 6: herself this fancy, really famous blonde wig, and she used it.
Speaker 6: But then suddenly when her hair grew back, of course,
Speaker 6: where she had gray hair, it grew back jet black,
Speaker 6: you know, So she had this newy growth of hair
Speaker 6: following chemo that was a little unusual and common from
Speaker 6: what natural hair prediagnosis was. The other thing is, I'll
Speaker 6: tell you I've had women who have had mass tectomies
Speaker 6: were not candidates for reconstruction. We're wearing breast prostices that
Speaker 6: we fit them with and then became, you know, decided,
Speaker 6: oh my gosh, I'm going to get married and I
Speaker 6: need to get a strap less bran and I want
Speaker 6: to become a bride that wears a traditional dress. We've
Speaker 6: outfitted mass tectomy brides and that's been so exciting because
Speaker 6: you don't have to believe the night that after you've
Speaker 6: lost a breast or being diagnosed breast cancer, you've lost
Speaker 6: your femininity and you've lost your identity. So I've it
Speaker 6: worked to women who we've fitted post surgically for beautiful
Speaker 6: bridal gowns, maternity bras for at least breastfeeding on one
Speaker 6: side because one breast has been removed. So there are
Speaker 6: so many things, so I sex, sexuality, femininity, you're your
Speaker 6: sense of libido, you know, your feeling of feeling like
Speaker 6: a woman, and all of these other things. Going to
Speaker 6: the beach, only grown up conversations are what we need
Speaker 6: to have. Yes, women going to the beach especially, you know,
Speaker 6: I always tell women when you're especially when you're living
Speaker 6: in the Caribbean and you're living in the tropics.
Speaker 1: Let yourself enjoy the beach. It's part of your healing.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: It's really really so therapeutic to be able to use
Speaker 6: the ocean, which you're getting for free because men people
Speaker 6: love to buy a.
Speaker 1: Ticket to go access the ocean.
Speaker 6: So please enjoy nature, enjoy the outdoors, embrace your femininity.
Speaker 6: Don't believe that because you've lost a breast, a man
Speaker 6: is not going to be attracted to you.
Speaker 1: And so many other things. You know, and I'll tell
Speaker 1: you this laughter once you could laugh laugh.
Speaker 6: Because laughter has truly proven itself to be the best medicine,
Speaker 6: and there have been instances where we see it. The Cheryl,
Speaker 6: the one with the Three Adventures, she became a happiness
Speaker 6: coach following her diagnoses because she recognized that happiness was
Speaker 6: actually what took her through her journey.
Speaker 7: Yes, so she has been.
Speaker 1: Empowering people to just be happy.
Speaker 6: And you know, every time we think about an event
Speaker 6: or activity where we have women and having conversations around
Speaker 6: a diagnosis, I'm often very very enticed and excited and
Speaker 6: moved to introduce every woman to my two cherls and
Speaker 6: my barbera.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it. In fact, I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's so much now, but there
Speaker 2: certainly is no need to associate breast cancer with a
Speaker 2: death that with a death sentence. There is so much
Speaker 2: that has been done in this fair and in this
Speaker 2: in this area that we can with early diagnosis. We've
Speaker 2: hammered that point throughout the program. There is help, there
Speaker 2: is there is healing. So we just want to encourage
Speaker 2: our women and our men to do the work to
Speaker 2: make sure that they check, they double check, they insist
Speaker 2: so that they can have early diagnosis if anything seems amiss.
Speaker 2: And absolutely, I mean one of the myths, and I'm
Speaker 2: not sure if it is a myth now, but it's
Speaker 2: certainly comforting to know that breast cancer is not a
Speaker 2: death sentence. There is so much that can be done
Speaker 2: and so many people survive it. Also, Nicole, you mentioned
Speaker 2: it in terms of mindset. How important mindset is, how
Speaker 2: important having the right attitude, laughing, praying, you know, going
Speaker 2: to the beach, having fun, How important these things are.
Speaker 2: I mean, I dare say, maybe not as much as chema,
Speaker 2: but certainly it plays a vital role in terms of
Speaker 2: healing and restoration. Angel have anything to add to that, No,
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: Just kind of said that, but identally VIDEO agree, and
Speaker 3: I guess this is where our faith will come into
Speaker 3: will come into this.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, we know.
Speaker 3: If you are people of faith, you know that you know,
Speaker 3: the God's word is full of promises, full of words
Speaker 3: of encouragement, you know. And again where you mentioned about
Speaker 3: you know, letting people know hopefully people will be praying
Speaker 3: for you, you know, and you know, praying, encouraging, et cetera.
Speaker 3: So all of those things can kind of feed into that.
Speaker 3: So definitely, how.
Speaker 2: Is that all of that?
Speaker 3: I'm sure it's not always easy because I think that
Speaker 3: level of being intentional with the I've got to get
Speaker 3: my mindset right because the real years, you may have
Speaker 3: your low days, you know, when you're not feeling so
Speaker 3: wearly you've had treatment, and even though you know that's
Speaker 3: going to help you, it's not an easy ride, you know.
Speaker 3: So I think it is also you know, being able
Speaker 3: to kind of manage those feelings as well and recognizing
Speaker 3: that those days may come. But you know, there is
Speaker 3: a bright light of the end as it were, you know,
Speaker 3: So yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to take a break now. Thanks Angie,
Speaker 2: We're going to take a break now and then love
Speaker 2: if we come back with you just giving any final
Speaker 2: words or any words of encouraging to anybody who may
Speaker 2: be going through what you've been through, any tips that's
Speaker 2: from your perspective, any advice from your perspective. And Nicole,
Speaker 2: we want to end with you in terms of what
Speaker 2: you're doing now. I know you're in DC, and I
Speaker 2: know it's work related. Maybe just shared a little bit
Speaker 2: about what you've been doing since we last spoke work wise,
Speaker 2: tell us a bit more about graphit and what's next
Speaker 2: for you. So we'll take a break and then we'll
Speaker 2: come back and close with these few things and anything
Speaker 2: else that and Angela, Pejoe you might want to add,
Speaker 2: we'll do that, and then we'll close out our conversation
Speaker 2: this evening. So let's take a break, another song and
Speaker 2: then we'll be back. Welcome back to Talking Point as
Speaker 2: we wrap up another wonderful conversation, informative conversation, educational conversation,
Speaker 2: and we're talking breast cancer awareness. Leavetta, thank you again
Speaker 2: for accepting the invitation to join us and very last
Speaker 2: minute as well, and for sharing your story. We wanted
Speaker 2: to ask to end, what advice would you give would
Speaker 2: you give someone who is going through what you've been
Speaker 2: through and what you are going through the journey of
Speaker 2: breast cancer.
Speaker 7: The only advice I would say is, especially if you're
Speaker 7: a person who has strong faith, heap that m heat
Speaker 7: that even when you have family around, sometimes you know
Speaker 7: they can be overwhelming and they don't mean to be,
Speaker 7: but sometimes you just want to go off into a
Speaker 7: room or have some time to yourself, you know, some
Speaker 7: quiet time, and faith is a big part of that.
Speaker 7: You know, what I have done, what I've started to
Speaker 7: do since years ago, was talk to God just as
Speaker 7: if he was right there in the room sitting next
Speaker 7: to me, and you know, just you know, tell him
Speaker 7: about my day or even if you're complain Yeah, just
Speaker 7: talk as if you know you have your best friend there.
Speaker 7: How you would talk to your best friend and over
Speaker 7: the phon annoying person. That's how I started to talk
Speaker 7: to God and I found that helped me so much.
Speaker 7: Another thing is accept the accept help.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: You may you may think you know you don't want
Speaker 7: to inconvenience anybody, or you know you're a bit shy
Speaker 7: about it. But your friends and your family are there
Speaker 7: to support you and to help you out in whatever
Speaker 7: way they can. And one of those is to help
Speaker 7: you to accept it. You know you can, you can
Speaker 7: tell them no, of course, you know, or you know
Speaker 7: it's too much. But once the help is offered or
Speaker 7: even given, accept it. Another thing is laugh as often
Speaker 7: as you can, Like Nicole said, laugh even if you
Speaker 7: have to find a funny video on YouTube or wherever
Speaker 7: to start it, you does just laugh. This is one
Speaker 7: of the big things me and my family do. We
Speaker 7: find a funny video, we share it, we laugh, We
Speaker 7: laugh as much as possible.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 7: And that has, you know, you relieve stress, It relieves
Speaker 7: some of the pent up you know, anxiety you may have,
Speaker 7: and it helps you, you know, through your day to day.
Speaker 2: H Yeah, love it.
Speaker 3: And never said do you have a I love I
Speaker 3: love what you're saying in terms of speaking to God
Speaker 3: as if he's sitting.
Speaker 4: Right next to you.
Speaker 3: And I know I mentioned before that there are many,
Speaker 3: you know, texts in God's where that are there for encouragement.
Speaker 3: Do you have a particular favorite Bible text, or you
Speaker 3: have a song or anything that you kind of have
Speaker 3: found that you kind of go to, is your go to.
Speaker 4: Form of support or anything.
Speaker 6: I have.
Speaker 7: I have many, but one of my one of my
Speaker 7: ones is trust in the Lord with all your heart
Speaker 7: and lean not on your own understanding and in all
Speaker 7: your ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your path.
Speaker 7: A love that, Yeah, and that has got me through
Speaker 7: because I may not understand why. I was, you know,
Speaker 7: suddenly I have all of this because I was like,
Speaker 7: I have all of these problems already and now this
Speaker 7: additional thing, so you know, and I was like, as
Speaker 7: they say, in case the raster, whatever will be will be,
Speaker 7: the future is not mine to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got such a positive attitude. It's it's amazing
Speaker 2: to see and to hear and to I mean, as
Speaker 2: you said, it's what's it is what has gotten you
Speaker 2: through this and it's just something to admire. It really is,
Speaker 2: and it's an inspiration to us all. Like you said,
Speaker 2: we may not know why, and our struggles will differ.
Speaker 2: It's not cancer for us all. It's not you know,
Speaker 2: a lot of job or a health situation even but
Speaker 2: we all have our struggles and to approach them with
Speaker 2: that attitude I think will do us all good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and just to piggyback on that, what what what support
Speaker 2: have you had from your church family? I have to
Speaker 2: shout out if Ilford Central Yes, very yeah, they have
Speaker 2: been amazing icy C. You know every type well every
Speaker 2: time they see me, you know, especially like the older folk,
Speaker 2: the older ladies, you know, oh you know you like,
Speaker 2: are you okay today?
Speaker 7: You know this week? How was your week? Or they like,
Speaker 7: you know, they see me or they'll ask me, are
Speaker 7: you feeling okay? Because if I look like I'm tired?
Speaker 7: Some people tell me them do you need some tea?
Speaker 7: You see? Teas a bit thing everybody because mostly Caribbean,
Speaker 7: everybody like some tea color I have this, Some somebody
Speaker 7: has some kind of tea in their purse. So yeah,
Speaker 7: they they have been great. I don't think everybody knows
Speaker 7: about my dad noticed, but those who do or are
Speaker 7: where that I've been ill from before, you know, they
Speaker 7: they're all every every time they see me or even
Speaker 7: if they have to send me a WhatsApp message ask me,
Speaker 7: you know you okay, You're doing good?
Speaker 2: M hm, yes, love it. That's what we need to hear.
Speaker 2: That's what we like to hear, and our community is
Speaker 2: being there for us and being supportive in the ways
Speaker 2: that they they need to and not everybody, Not everybody
Speaker 2: has that, and not everybody gets support from a church community.
Speaker 2: But I mean, Angela, you're going to share with us
Speaker 2: some of the other networks and support groups out there
Speaker 2: for people who may not have the church family but
Speaker 2: can find support. There's loads in the UK certainly, and
Speaker 2: I'm sure if you did a good Google search wherever
Speaker 2: you are listening, you'd be able to tap into two
Speaker 2: resources in your local area. But before we get there, Nicole,
Speaker 2: thank you, and our time is fast spent. But let
Speaker 2: us know what you're doing now. I know you're in DC,
Speaker 2: and I know it's a work venture and you're doing
Speaker 2: loans in this space. Tell us a little bit more
Speaker 2: about what you are doing currently, what's next for you,
Speaker 2: and how people can leverage your resources. You spoke about
Speaker 2: a workbook earlier that certain people may want to get
Speaker 2: their hands on. How do people connect with you?
Speaker 6: So how do people connect with us? We have a
Speaker 6: website and it's misprofit dot com, so it's msbr fit
Speaker 6: dot com worldwide. We can also be reached via WhatsApp
Speaker 6: because we also do virtual consultations, so we can be
Speaker 6: reached on WhatsApp and that is plus one eight six
Speaker 6: eight seven five five one four ninety six. We're also
Speaker 6: on all social media and if you Google us, you
Speaker 6: would find us, so it's easy for us to be
Speaker 6: found globally and online virtually.
Speaker 1: What are we doing.
Speaker 6: We are reimagining breast care, and it's because there have
Speaker 6: been so many strides that we have made over the
Speaker 6: years in creating and curating breast health and breast care solutions,
Speaker 6: particularly that empower women and girls. So some of the
Speaker 6: things we've done over the last few years since we spoke,
Speaker 6: we have created quite a few solutions that are more
Speaker 6: intervention based in terms of engaging conversations and again of
Speaker 6: course removing some of the taboos our education programs. We've
Speaker 6: always been taking them into like corporate spaces and into
Speaker 6: grassroots community, so that hasn't stopped.
Speaker 1: One of the things we just did.
Speaker 6: Over the last few days over the weekend naturally, so
Speaker 6: like two days ago, was begin that reimagining of post
Speaker 6: surgical care for women, post mastectomy care, and we are
Speaker 6: going to be launching some new initiatives and new products
Speaker 6: that women can use. Most women that come to us
Speaker 6: might come for a bra or might come for a
Speaker 6: breast prost thesis. We do have lots of other solutions
Speaker 6: and interventions that we have over the years once we
Speaker 6: found a gap created for them, so we are about
Speaker 6: to launch some of them. We are about to introduce
Speaker 6: a little bit of skin care into that domain, because
Speaker 6: sometimes women come to us after a referral from a
Speaker 6: dermatologist and it might have been because of another skin
Speaker 6: issue that may have presented itself. Our skin products are
Speaker 6: not going to be medically base, but they're going to
Speaker 6: be more in the area of aromatherapy and aromatic and
Speaker 6: natural products, so that it's not going to in any
Speaker 6: way cause any additional you know, skin trauma or anything
Speaker 6: like that. But we found it was a necessity and
Speaker 6: we've been working on that since during the pandemic, during
Speaker 6: like twenty seventeen and then right throughout the entire lockdown,
Speaker 6: we were testing and trying out stuff. So we feel
Speaker 6: like that's the next thing that's going to happen. So
Speaker 6: you're not hearing it first, you're actually.
Speaker 1: Hearing it first. This is an exclusion, but we are
Speaker 1: really reimagining.
Speaker 6: The entire experience of the breast, from the first layer
Speaker 6: of clothing right through to the conversation about it, because
Speaker 6: we recognize that if we do not have those conversations
Speaker 6: with those who really have are having the first hand experience,
Speaker 6: the conversation is going to get lost in translation because
Speaker 6: those without the first hand experience are going to be
Speaker 6: giving secondhand information and diluting what that outcome is, and
Speaker 6: people will still be living in the fair we talked
Speaker 6: about earlier, and in the lack of awareness that we
Speaker 6: spoke about earlier. And if I'm to leave this earth
Speaker 6: and leave a legacy, that legacy is going to be
Speaker 6: dignity with the first lay of clothing. And we have
Speaker 6: to remember something about breasts and the value that they play.
Speaker 6: It's literally in numerous places in the Bible, so we're
Speaker 6: not talking about something here that's arbitrarily being discussed. Breasts
Speaker 6: are literally everywhere in the Bible. They've been mentioned more
Speaker 6: than ten times, and more than that, it's the food
Speaker 6: of the first form of food for the newborn child.
Speaker 6: So if we are to think of those two very
Speaker 6: important dialogues about breasts, we know that it is urgent.
Speaker 6: It is important. We cannot rely only on the health
Speaker 6: care provider. And I want to just shout out health
Speaker 6: care providers, doctors and surgeons, because I.
Speaker 1: Compliment the work that they do.
Speaker 6: I'm the next step after their move, removal, or any
Speaker 6: kind of surgical action. And so I am really really
Speaker 6: grateful because I see the immense work that they do.
Speaker 6: I see the successful surgeries. I see the happy families
Speaker 6: because they've had a good doctor. So I shout out,
Speaker 6: you know, we need to really give accolades to those
Speaker 6: who are in the care field, the clinical the clinical field,
Speaker 6: the clinicians, the surgeons, the nursing care staff, all of
Speaker 6: those people that make up that battery of care givers
Speaker 6: of which I am one of them. And so in reimagining,
Speaker 6: we're also going to make their work easier or lighter,
Speaker 6: because remember, I see the patient after they have done
Speaker 6: the work. But what I want to do is when
Speaker 6: they go back for a review, I want them to
Speaker 6: feel that this patient has literally been now at a
Speaker 6: place of total recovery or total rehabilitation. And I'll give
Speaker 6: you a joke. The very Sheryl who was going on
Speaker 6: her who was who has had the three adventures. When
Speaker 6: she was going on her trip after her first masstectomy,
Speaker 6: her doctor said, her surgeon said, I can't remember which
Speaker 6: breast I removed, And that was because and I'm not
Speaker 6: blowing my trumpet here, but that was because when we
Speaker 6: fit a woman for a breast prost thesis, we put
Speaker 6: her in the right item. Not only should it show
Speaker 6: breasts that are symmetrical and even, but they should also
Speaker 6: give the woman that sense of comfort, ease, confidence, care,
Speaker 6: and it must not be too heavy, too light, too
Speaker 6: imposing on her posture because it is a medical item.
Speaker 6: So at the end of the day, what we want
Speaker 6: to do is by using the work that we do
Speaker 6: and the blessings that we have been given by God
Speaker 6: to make women feel great. We want to advance that,
Speaker 6: elevate that, and make women understand, Okay, I'm doing a
Speaker 6: virtual consultation with you, but that does not mean that
Speaker 6: when I get my items, I'm not going to feel empowered.
Speaker 1: And I'll give you one more story.
Speaker 6: During the lockdown, a referral came all the way from
Speaker 6: LinkedIn from a woman who had a recommendation based on
Speaker 6: someone she knew, so it wasn't even a first hand recommendation.
Speaker 6: And inside of that recommendation, what happened was when I
Speaker 6: did the virtual consultation and ship the items over to
Speaker 6: the country where the person was and and I did
Speaker 6: the virtual refitting now to make sure that it fitted
Speaker 6: well on everything. The next thing, she calls me and
Speaker 6: she says, you know, you have to come to our
Speaker 6: country because now as soon as the lockdown and over,
Speaker 6: we have to find a way to get you here,
Speaker 6: she said. But before that, I want to let you
Speaker 6: know that my aunt, who had a mastectomy twenty years ago,
Speaker 6: has been stuffing her bra with all kinds of things,
Speaker 6: and we also want a prosthesis for her. So again,
Speaker 6: because of that confidence that I'd given to that one
Speaker 6: woman via a referral that came almost i will say
Speaker 6: randomly via LinkedIn, I was able to help another woman
Speaker 6: and by extension or community, by extension or family. So
Speaker 6: in reimagining the work that we're about to do, it's
Speaker 6: going to again advance the faith. It's going to advance
Speaker 6: the faith of a woman who believes in God already,
Speaker 6: believes in her surgeon's already, but Noel needs to believe
Speaker 6: in herself.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, thank you, Nicole, Thank you for taking
Speaker 2: the time out. I know you've got a really busy schedule,
Speaker 2: but you've made the time and I can hear the
Speaker 2: passion in your voice for what you were doing, and
Speaker 2: I just wish God's blessing on you may enlarge your territory.
Speaker 2: And Jela, you said you've got some details for folks
Speaker 2: who may be in need of support here in the UK.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean there are lots of There are lots
Speaker 3: of organizations. There are general sort of cancer support agencies,
Speaker 3: so Cancer Research UK, but specific ones for breast cancer.
Speaker 3: It's against Breast Cancer Care, It's Breast Cancer.
Speaker 4: Now, which is a big one. Again.
Speaker 3: You can contact them by phone or find their website.
Speaker 3: There's also one called Copper Feel, which is an interesting one.
Speaker 3: It's a UK charity that provides information, advice and it
Speaker 3: provides awareness, especially amongst younger people again, and they have
Speaker 3: resources for teachers and educators as well, and they've got
Speaker 3: sort of a very good website there as well.
Speaker 4: So definitely do have a look.
Speaker 3: And also this is obviously you know, any kind of
Speaker 3: diagnosis of any illness is going to be stressful and
Speaker 3: maybe have an impact on your mental health. So if
Speaker 3: you do feel that you do need to support their
Speaker 3: therapeutics access therapeutics support as well. So while we have
Speaker 3: our own counseling service CCS Cornstone Counseling Service, you can
Speaker 3: give them a call or contact them or look at
Speaker 3: their website too. You can connect with them on zero
Speaker 3: to zero seven seven two three eight zero five zero
Speaker 3: or you can find their website CCS Counseling dot org
Speaker 3: dot UK. So there are there are lots of organizations
Speaker 3: out there, so you know if you do have obviously
Speaker 3: you're working with your doctors and your GP. They can
Speaker 3: recommence certain ones, but you know, don't be afraid to
Speaker 3: reach out for help. It can be a really scary time,
Speaker 3: sential a lonely time if you don't have the support
Speaker 3: around you. But there is support out there, so we
Speaker 3: do encourage you to access and ultimately, you know, we're
Speaker 3: putting our trust in God. And I want to sort
Speaker 3: of leave you with a couple of texts that I
Speaker 3: found that are always inspirational for me anyway, but definitely
Speaker 3: can offer some encouragement for anybody going through his journey.
Speaker 3: Is I forteen verse thirty one as a promise of
Speaker 3: renewal those that way to them the Lord will renew
Speaker 3: their strength. They should mount up with wings like eagles.
Speaker 3: They should run and not be weary. They should walk
Speaker 3: and not faint. And similarly a promise of strength in
Speaker 3: Psalms eighteen, verse thirty nine, which says, well you equiptomy
Speaker 3: with strength for battle. You made those who rise against
Speaker 3: me sin unto me. So again it's a promise of
Speaker 3: strength and enabling you to kind of move forward, but.
Speaker 4: Ultimately as well.
Speaker 3: And this maybe is a little bit follow on from
Speaker 3: Levetta's text, but a promise of peace if you're feeling
Speaker 3: anxious about this journey. Philippines four, verse six or seven says,
Speaker 3: do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,
Speaker 3: by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.
Speaker 3: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will
Speaker 3: guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. As
Speaker 3: your worries begin to pile up, you know, greet them,
Speaker 3: but hand them over to God. They're not going to
Speaker 3: be your problem anymore. God's got you in his everlasting arms.
Speaker 3: So I want to leave that word of encouragement for
Speaker 3: you there.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Anji, and just remember to have
Speaker 2: regular screenings and stay informed and be proactive about your
Speaker 2: health and encourage others to do so, be practical as well.
Speaker 2: That's so important. That's so important, he jo. You want
Speaker 2: to close with any final words and a prayer for us, please, a.
Speaker 5: Lot of unpack a lot of information, good information, as
Speaker 5: I do like what Laura Leavetta said about giving information
Speaker 5: on how people can handle when one of their family
Speaker 5: members are diagnosed and how they can help them, because
Speaker 5: I think that's the very I think the importance of
Speaker 5: having that help, that support and that family you know,
Speaker 5: that help is very is very It's good for the
Speaker 5: person that's going through the through the situation. And then
Speaker 5: with miss Nicole, you know, like I think one of
Speaker 5: you said it, you can just hear in her voice
Speaker 5: when she talks, like it's just oozing out of her
Speaker 5: pores and out of her skin and out of her
Speaker 5: whole body, how much it just how much it means
Speaker 5: to her. You could just hear it how much it
Speaker 5: means to her. So I can appreciate the transparency and
Speaker 5: the authicity that she that she's coming off with. So yeah,
Speaker 5: and well, one last thing, because we've been talking about
Speaker 5: the women, I'm gonna end it with the men. And
Speaker 5: that's just any man listening or any woman that has
Speaker 5: a man that they may you know, want to go
Speaker 5: check you know, check your men too. And it's the
Speaker 5: same toke. It just applies to the men too that
Speaker 5: they will go and make sure because as Nicole said,
Speaker 5: that is definitely something that we don't talk about. So
Speaker 5: you know, we need to the men need to get checked,
Speaker 5: make sure everything's okay, because I'm sure a lot of men.
Speaker 5: I know myself, I want to be there for my
Speaker 5: kids for a long time. That's why I stopped having
Speaker 5: kids at a certain time, so that I could at
Speaker 5: least see them grow up, you know, at a certain age.
Speaker 5: I just felt like if I went too long having
Speaker 5: kids at fifty and then having a kid, I want
Speaker 5: to see the kid grow up, you know. I mean,
Speaker 5: you don't know when it's going to happen, but just
Speaker 5: it just made sense to me. But you know, you
Speaker 5: want to be there for your family. So if you
Speaker 5: want to be there for your family, got to be
Speaker 5: there for yourself. Nobody's going to take care of your
Speaker 5: health like you can if you're not, if nobody else
Speaker 5: cares about your health, you should be the one that
Speaker 5: cares about your health because you know, unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 5: it's just the way it is. So if you're a
Speaker 5: mail and you feel something or you feel like something
Speaker 5: don't feel right, please go get checked and use some
Speaker 5: of the resources and don't be ashamed because it happens
Speaker 5: to us too. That'd be the main. Don't let your
Speaker 5: probably get and get in fun of you where you
Speaker 5: don't go get checked. So that would be my message
Speaker 5: to the men. I said, so, yeah, so, and that
Speaker 5: we break all right. Oh, by the way, thank you
Speaker 5: miss Levetta, and thank you miss Nicole for coming on today.
Speaker 5: Have any fun out will thank you for bringing us
Speaker 5: to another talking point the end of a talking point.
Speaker 5: We thank you Lord for the information that has been
Speaker 5: given to us and the acknowledgment and the understanding that
Speaker 5: we now have and that will allow us to go
Speaker 5: and investigate more and ask more questions and ask more
Speaker 5: ideas of what can be done to help support or
Speaker 5: help each other through this time and through the time
Speaker 5: that people are going through with this disease. We thank
Speaker 5: you Lord for the love that you've given us. And
Speaker 5: we say so say Lord that in the end we
Speaker 5: know that when you come back there will be no
Speaker 5: more cancer, there will be no more sickness, There'll be
Speaker 5: no more disease. So we look forward to that day.
Speaker 5: Have any Father, We ask that you will continue to
Speaker 5: just bless us, be with us, each and every one
Speaker 5: of us, and allow us to give us the strength
Speaker 5: that we need to make it through the day. We
Speaker 5: love you, Lord. Let me thank you again for your
Speaker 5: love and your mercy. We also ask a Lord of
Speaker 5: the family members will have the knowledge and the strength
Speaker 5: to help those that are in need, or even just
Speaker 5: the healthcare workers and the doctors and the nurses and
Speaker 5: whoever is dealing with this terrible disease, give them the
Speaker 5: understanding and the compasion and understanding to help and to
Speaker 5: heal and to help people to navigate through this time.
Speaker 5: We thank you Lord again for your loving and mercy,
Speaker 5: for the uppering your holy name.
Speaker 2: Amen, Amen, Amen, thank you again. The butler, I'll let
Speaker 2: you go off and get to bed now, thank you
Speaker 2: so much. And Nicole, thank you as well. And if
Speaker 2: anybody needs additional information, please contact the station. I will
Speaker 2: be sure to share that with you. Until next time,
Speaker 2: It's goodbye from me. Senya.
Speaker 5: I went for the click. I'm doing it with a click.
Speaker 5: You can see already. I went for the click, and
Speaker 5: it's goodbye for Piedro.
Speaker 2: God bless the Next Time.
Speaker 3: Adventist Radio, London inspiration for the song