Breast cancer in Hong Kong: how self-examinations and ‘getting the damn mammogram’ can help save your life
- One out of every 15 women in Hong Kong will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime
- Hong Kong Cancer Fund kicks off a month of awareness and education about breast cancer
For Petula Kincaid, November was getting off to a good start. One year into a job she loved as managing director of a lifestyle magazine, and just back from a dream holiday in Vietnam she had every reason to think her 54th year would be one of the best.
Then, she says, “I spotted something that looked a bit strange”. A lump in her breast, she says, “just appeared out of nowhere”.
That was on a Friday. Come Monday morning she was at her doctor’s office. By the end of the day she had her diagnosis: stage 2B breast cancer. That “strange something” she found was an aggressive tumour, already four centimetres long.
“You’re just in total shock. You’re numb,” Kincaid remembers. “Then you have to go home. When I told my husband, it looked like his whole world had fallen apart. So you’re dealing with yourself, but you’re also dealing with your loved ones, and telling them, and watching their little faces fall apart.”
As alone as Kincaid likely felt in that doctor’s office, her experience is chillingly common in Hong Kong. One out of every 15 women in Hong Kong will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. In 2016, there were 4,123 new breast cancer cases in the city.
Hong Kong is fortunate to have comprehensive, state-of-the-art medical care, but the most powerful weapon against breast cancer is knowledge. The earlier cancer is caught and diagnosed, the easier it is to treat, and the more likely the sufferer is to survive.
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Knowing how to self-administer breast exams, as well as undergoing routine mammograms at a doctor’s office have been proven to save lives.
October is International Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but this year the Hong Kong Cancer Fund is getting started early and launching its Pink Revolution Campaign on September 3.
The Hong Kong Cancer Fund is the largest breast cancer support organisation in Hong Kong, and will use this campaign to spread basic knowledge about breast cancer and raise funds for its ongoing work in supporting women living with cancer.
This year, they are encouraging supporters to inaugurate a “Dress in Pink” day at their offices and have even snagged a celebrity spokesperson – singer and actress Sammi Cheng Sau-man – to spread the word about breast cancer, and the value of early detection.
For Cheng, this cause is personal.
“Some of my relatives and friends have been diagnosed with breast cancer and gynaecological cancer,” Cheng says. “One of my friends was diagnosed with a rare type of breast cancer. Recently, her cancer returned and spread to other parts of her body such as her bones and liver.”
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After treatment, and against all odds, her friend is now free of cancer. And, Cheng says that her experiences with her loved ones haven’t made her despair, they’ve made her take action.
These days, she gets regular mammograms. “I have encouraged my family and friends to self-check regularly, she says. “I just had a check-up a few months ago.”
Like Cheng’s friend, Kincaid was also one of the lucky ones.
Within a week of her diagnosis she had a mastectomy, and incredibly had to miss only one week of work.
“Hong Kong is so thorough and so speedy and so amazing,” Kincaid remembers. But her road to recovery was only just beginning. Within three weeks of her surgery, she was undergoing chemotherapy.
“There was no avoiding the damn chemo,” she says.
Yes, a mammogram is not very comfortable – but bloody do it so you don’t have to go through what I’ve been through.
After four rounds of chemotherapy, Kincaid was exhausted, but the worst was still ahead of her: radiotherapy.
“I felt like I was done. I was exhausted, but I still had to do 25 rounds of radiotherapy,” she says.
This was when Kincaid started hitting her limit: “Halfway through my sessions, I really started to think ‘this is it’. I was really tired by then. It’s literally every day. It was just so awful.”
That was when she decided to reach out to the Hong Kong Cancer Fund. Immediately, she felt that she wasn’t alone.
“I really felt these people understood me, and I understood them,” she says. “Hong Kong can be a hard place to be sick, but when you go to the Hong Kong Cancer Fund you feel like you’re being wrapped up in a big cushion.”
The fund became Kincaid’s go-to resource for information and support when she was feeling alone or overwhelmed. And she credits the fund’s comprehensive programme with helping her to heal.
“They gave me lots of practical advice,” says Kincaid, “but also on the holistic side there’s just so much they do. I went for this three-hour gong bath session which was amazing. We were all vibrating for three days afterwards, just full of positivity. I would come home from one of the fund’s programmes and my husband would say ‘you look amazing’ and I just felt wonderful.”
For an antidote to stress, sink into a Hong Kong gong bath (no water required)
Kincaid’s last session of radiotherapy was in June and she is still suffering the side-effects of her treatment. Still, today she is cancer-free, and taking stock of her life with a whole new perspective.
“I don’t really worry about money any more,” she says shaking her head. “Now that I’ve been through this let me tell you, that’s the least of your worries. It’s health, health, health. Without your health, you can’t have the good job, you won’t have the big house, and the car.”
She has started a new business as a consultant and is trying to look forward, living her life for the most part without regret.
“I wish I would have gone to the Hong Kong Cancer Fund sooner,” she admits.
“Don’t be afraid to ask for help,” she says over a coffee, looking healthy and full of life. “I didn’t ask for help until the end when I reached out to the Cancer Fund. You’re so overwhelmed by everything and still you don’t want to ask for help – but you really need help.”
Her straightforward advice for women is simply: “Get the damn mammogram.”
“I would put them off, ‘I’ll do it next week, I’ll do it in a month’s time,’” she says. “Yes, a mammogram is not very comfortable – but do it so you don’t have to go through what I’ve been through.”
For more on the Hong Kong Cancer Fund’s Pink Revolution campaign: cancer-fund.org/pink/en/
