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Rumbidzai Zinyuke
Senior Health Reporter

On her birthday on November 7, 2021, Stella Bobo discovered a lump on her breast.

“It was actually big, but I think I had just subconsciously brushed it aside thinking it was somehow part of the breast. I called my sister to feel it and we decided to squeeze it to see if any liquid would come from the breast. When we saw that there was just a minimal liquid coming out, we convinced ourselves that maybe I had just hit my breast on the braai stand while I was working,” said Stella.

From there, the lump became painful and she started to feel a heaviness from her shoulder down to the breast.

She decided to give it two weeks hoping that the swelling would go down.

But that did not happen. Instead, the heaviness had become worse and she had to support her breast as the pain became unbearable.

The doctor immediately referred Stella for a mammogram, which was done at West End Hospital where a technician also recommended that she has a scan taken.

“I was with my sister who was actually more anxious than I was,” she said. “I told her that the lump could be cancerous and immediately she was on her hand and knees in that hospital crying her eyes out. I was looking at her as she was crying.

“We had lost an aunt to cancer which was detected late and my sister had nursed her, so this is why she was so affected by the news that I could have cancer.”

Stella made the decision that she did not want to lose her breast, so the doctors were to just remove the lump and leave her breast alone.  After a biopsy came back negative, the doctors did just as she had wanted. The lump was removed at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital in December.

It was sent to Lancet laboratories but the lab made a mistake and sent back the negative biopsy result.

When she went for a review, they realised the mistake and called the lab. Just a few minutes later the lab had sent back the correct results which showed that Stella had Stage 3 invasive ductal carcinoma.

“That is when it finally hit home that I had cancer and was going to lose my breast,” she said. “Since my mother and sister got easily stressed, I went to one of my close friend’s house and broke down.

“I cried hard. I cried so much and asked God why this was happening to me. I later went home and asked my family if we could try herbal treatments, but all the people we called said they could not treat my cancer, until we got one who said they could give me herbs to cleanse my whole system, but I was reluctant to take these herbs.”

Even though her breast was healing from the surgery that removed the lump, her breast was starting to feel heavy again.

The pain seemed to be coming back stronger than it had been before.

Stella then decided to go ahead with the mastectomy.

On January 18, her breast was removed.

Her sister was there every step of the way, for all the visits to the doctor, to the lab and on the day of the surgery.

Stella says she trusted God and the procedure went well. She then moved to the chemotherapy stage.

“Chemotherapy is a tough journey,” recalls Stella. “It is painful; so painful that if you are not strong enough you can literally die from the pain. Your body and your system needs to fight, but your antibodies are down and you are not eating enough to gain the strength needed to fight.

“Your favourite food becomes your worst and it smells so bad. I am lucky I did not suffer from diarrhoea and vomiting. I sometimes wondered if I would make it to the next day.”

For the first four cycles of chemo, she got a drug known as the red devil which burnt her so much and blackened her hands and feet and she lost all her hair.

The remaining four cycles made her skin dry, itchy and her limbs would go numb.

Her body would swell so much that people who did not know what she was going through would think she was gaining weight. They thought she was doing well, yet she was suffering inside.

While all this was happening, Stella needed to go to work because she needed money to pay her bills. According to her, people would rather give a cancer patient emotional support than financial support because they think the patient might die.

“I had plenty of emotional support,” said Stella. “My family and friends were there. With no emotional support you can just let go of life, especially if you do not have kids. You start thinking why you should hold on.

“My mom is a pensioner and she would sacrifice all of her money to make sure that I had everything I needed. When I was sick during chemo, my mom would actually fall sick as well until I got better. In the last stages of chemo at least she now knew what to expect so it was better.”

Stella says the journey she had walked was painful, emotional and sometimes lonely.

No one could know what to expect or how to cope with the pain. And no one who had never gone through it could understand what cancer patients go through.

She prays daily that the cancer will not recur.

She is going back for her doctor’s review and hopes she will not have to go for radiotherapy.

“I have learnt so much about myself, but the most important thing is that I am a strong person,” said Stella. “They say that in the middle of a storm, you should not lose your faith, I witnessed that about myself.

“I learnt that I could actually control my thoughts, both the negative and positive. It is all in my head to sink into negativity or surround myself with positivity. I managed to hold my smile throughout the whole journey as my strength and boldness was tested.”

Stella said depression was the worst corner that a person fighting cancer could sink into, so staying positive helped her not to go down that road.

She says she has never needed people to feel sorry for her or offer her advice or counselling because that would only push her to also feel sorry for herself.

If anything, her journey has taught her to become her own counsellor and cheerleader.

Stella said women should not avoid getting screened or tested for breast cancer as it could save their lives.

“Some people do not speak out when they notice a lump or discolouration on their breast,” she said. “They only seek help when the cancer is at an advanced stage after trying other treatments which fail. By that time, their immune system is too weak to fight the cancer and they do not make it when they start chemotherapy.”

Now that she is well on the recovery path, Stella is comfortable in her skin. She has accepted that she has lost a part of herself, but that has not taken anything away from her.

She can now hold her bald head high and walk boldly towards a cancer free life!