How Indian-Canadian actress Lisa Ray’s blood cancer battle helped her find strength and ‘clarity’

For acclaimed Indian-Canadian actress Lisa Ray, the International Toronto Film Festival in 2009 was not the glamorous homecoming that it had been in previous years.

There to promote her two newly released films, Ray chose to publicly reveal her ongoing battle with multiple myeloma – a rare, incurable form of blood cancer that causes cancer cells to accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells.

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“A lot of people told me to skip the event as I had put on 40 pounds [18 kilograms] because of the steroids I had been prescribed. I could either hide or show up. I listened to my heart and decided to go public with my diagnosis,” recalls Ray, who was 37 years old at the time.

Born in Toronto to an Indian father and Polish mother, Ray was first “spotted” as a teenager and went on to become one of India’s most successful cover models. Named as one of the “10 most beautiful women of the millennium” in a Times of India poll, Ray has been the face of brands like L’Oreal, MasterCard, De Beers and Rado and was the host of Top Chef Canada for four seasons.

Ray made her film debut in Bollywood thriller Kasoor in 2001, followed by a lead role in the 2002 romantic comedy Bollywood/Hollywood. Ray had a seamless transition from modelling to acting, most notably starring in Deepa Mehta’s 2005 Oscar-nominated film Water .

Ray and her husband moved to Hong Kong in 2014, and she continues to pursue her career in film and television and her passions for philanthropy and championing social causes.

Ray says that yoga saved her life. “I was at a yoga teacher training in Kerala [in India], and at the end of my second session I didn’t have the energy to get up from the mat,” she recalls. A medical check-up done soon afterwards revealed that she had multiple myeloma.

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“I felt a strange sense of relief when I first heard the diagnosis. I had been feeling tired for months and had put it down to my gruelling schedule. At least now I knew what was wrong with my body … The sense of relief was denial in another form as it was hard to accept that this had happened to me and that I was dying,” says Ray.

“Luckily, I met Dr Ahmed Galal, whom I call my guardian angel,” says Ray of the haematologist who treated her and was associated with the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto at the time. “His attitude was, ‘Let’s kick this cancer together’, and that really helped me cope with things. I slowly accepted my condition,” she recalls.

Ray underwent chemotherapy for four months followed by a stem cell transplant. She knew that chemotherapy would cause her hair to fall out. Instead of waiting to watch it happen, she grabbed an electric razor and shaved her hair off.

“It was liberating! Having come out publicly about my illness, I was no longer under pressure to look glamorous,” she says.

Ray received the stem cell transplant on December 25, 2009. “I was scared, but I had to take a chance. And I survived. It was the best Christmas gift I had ever received, a new birth and a new sense of being,” she says. In February 2010, Ray was cancer-free and raring to go.

Ray started writing about her illness in her blog The Yellow Diaries. In it, she refers to herself as the Yellow Warrior, after the colour associated with the third chakra in Ayurveda [a holistic healing system] which is located around the navel and governs will power and the power of transformation.

An entry from the blog dated January 15, 2010 about her stem cell transplant, reads: “It was an odyssey. A trip to the core. The marrow had its way. Now I’m full of cheerful stem cells, like fields of sunflowers I travel inside and watch them turn their small, yellow faces towards me. They giggle and beam. Go forth and multiply.”

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Another dated May 15, 2010, reads: “I’m back from Rishikesh [a city in India]. Passed many shaven pilgrims. In this city of mystics, mendicants and seekers, my tonsured head blends in. My dad and I sat by the side of the Ganges and dipped our fingers in the sacred rivers. He placed his hand on the crown of my head, leaving droplets in my pilgrim fuzz. We watch the faithful immerse themselves. The waters cleanse it all away.”

“My blog allowed me to reach out to so many people, which was empowering and the overwhelming response I received gave me the strength to carry on,” says Ray, who has since become a poster girl for cancer survival and a champion of stem cell transplant. She received the prestigious Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013 from the Canadian government for her advocacy of multiple myeloma.

While following the medication her oncologist had prescribed, Ray threw herself into the world of complementary treatments – Ayurveda, energy healing, fasting, craniosacral therapy, acupuncture and nutrition.

She attended a three-week life transformation programme at the Hippocrates Health Institute in the United States. “I learned about how nutrition impacts the immune system and how one can boost immunity naturally by eating healthily,” says Ray who ate raw food for six months and became vegetarian for a while. “There are two things that can kill you or heal you – what you think and what you eat.”

Ray’s husband, Jason Dehni, says: “Lisa had a deep sense of belief that she had the ability to heal herself which turned her into an unstoppable force by taking a holistic approach to healing, seeking out complimentary treatments, all the while maintaining her unshakeable belief.”

Ray practised visualisation, meditation and yoga throughout her treatment. Ray credits her practice as having a deep impact on her spiritually and physically. “Yoga taught me to live in the moment and treat my body with compassion,” says Ray who practises pranayama and follows a gentle yoga practice. “It penetrates so deep you don’t even realise the changes until you need to draw on your inner resources,” she says.

Ray converted to Buddhism after spending six months in 2004 studying Tibetan Buddhism at the Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharamsala, India. Ray believes that Buddhism gave her the mental tools to battle cancer.

“I learned not to get attached to my thoughts or to reproach them, but to observe them. I sat with my breath, found space within myself and became a witness to the entire experience. It gave me a reprieve from being gripped by fear,” says Ray.

Her father, Salil Ray, says her immersion in Buddhist teachings and her fearlessness “helped her cope with cancer”. “In 2008, after her mother passed away, Lisa took a course in Tibetan Buddhism’s teachings on death and impermanence in Dharamsala. A few months later she was diagnosed with cancer.”

“Living with a serious disease changed my life and gave me clarity. It shook loose old concepts of who I should be and what my life should look like. I’m back not to just an ordinary life, but an extraordinary one. I’m now more content and aware about every single moment. My goal is to live well. Nothing grander than that,” says Ray, whose memoir Close To The Bone will be published by HarperCollins India this summer.

Ray took to Instagram a few months ago to announce the arrival of her twin daughters, who were born via surrogacy. “Multiple myeloma hurtled me into premature menopause. There was no way I could carry a child on lifelong maintenance therapy,” says Ray. Their names are Sufi – the mystic – and Soleil – the sun. “My husband pointed out, [the names] combined becomes “souffle”. Served sweet or savoury, it’s my favourite dish,” she says.

Lisa Ray’s wellness tips

1. Believe

You must believe that your mind and body have the power to heal.

2. Become the CEO of your health and healing

Learn about the disease, what may have triggered it and how the immune system works. Ask questions. Explore complimentary treatments like Ayurveda, fasting, acupuncture and any others that resonate with you.

3. Boost your immune system

Strengthen your immunity through exercise and diet. Switch your diet from one that causes inflammation in the body to one that heals.

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4. Prioritise wellness

Do activities that calm your mind. It could be meditation, running, journaling your thoughts, reading, doing yoga or anything else you enjoy.

5. Ask for help

Ask for help, both emotional and practical. Surround yourself with people who love, support and nurture you.

To know more please visit www.lisaraniray.com

What is multiple myeloma?

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the bone marrow plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that help us fight infections by making antibodies that attack germs. A cancerous or malignant plasma cell is called a myeloma cell.

Multiple myeloma causes cancer cells to accumulate in the bone marrow, where they crowd out the healthy blood cells. Rather than produce helpful antibodies, the cancer cells produce abnormal proteins that cause complications. Myeloma is called “multiple” because there are frequently multiple patches or areas in bone where it grows. The cancer starts from the bone marrow and then invades the bones.

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What are the common symptoms?

• Fatigue

• Bone pain especially in the spine or chest

• Nausea

• Constipation

• Mental fogginess or confusion

• Frequent infections

• Loss of appetite

• Weight loss

• Excessive thirst

• Problems with kidney function

How is Myeloma detected?

Myeloma can be detected through blood tests, urine tests, a bone marrow biopsy and imaging tests (X-ray, MRI, CT or PET Scan).

What are the treatment options?

Targeted therapy: antibodies are injected into the body to target specific proteins found on cancer cells, killing them or preventing them from growing.

Biological therapy: drugs are used to enhance the immune system cells that identify and attack cancer cells.

Chemotherapy: kills fast growing cells including myeloma cells.

Stem cell or bone marrow transplant: high-dose chemotherapy kills the cells in the bone marrow. Then the patient receives new, healthy blood-forming stem cells from a donor. The best treatment results occur when the donor’s cells are closely matched to the patient’s cell type and the donor is closely related to the patient, such as a sibling.

Radiation therapy: beams of energy such as X-rays and protons kill the myeloma cells.