Cynthia and Her Sisters
Left to right: Claudia, Gaby, Cynthia, Tany, Brenda, and Vivian
By Cynthia, a Sister Study participant from Florida. Her sister Claudia has recently joined the Sister Study as well.
I belong to a family of seven children, of which six are women. It was heartbreaking for all of us to loose our parents after their struggle with cancer. My dad died in 1989 of prostate cancer and my mom in 1994 of endometrial cancer. Both cancers metastasized to their bones.
Long before this, around 1982, my sister Brenda, the eldest, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 31 at that time; she was already married and had two girls. It was such shocking and unexpected news that I could not bring myself to believe it. I always regarded Brenda as a very strong and secure person; I had never seen her cry the way she did on that day. I felt so helpless that the only thing I could do was to kneel down and pray to God asking Him for the strength and courage to overcome that situation and to be able to support my sister during the difficult time that the whole family was facing.
Brenda was a model of strength and faith; she went through biopsies and natural treatments before she would endure a mastectomy with a solidness that only God could provide. Thankfully she did not have to go through chemotherapy treatments. More than 20 years have passed and she is doing very well.
In 2002, my little sister, Tany, the youngest, the last of seven siblings, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was 33 years old, married and had two children. That news was devastating, especially because Tany’s cancer required chemotherapy and it was very hard for her to suffer the ordeal of the illness, to go through a mastectomy and to loose her hair. Brenda was the only sister that could be with her since all of the others lived in other cities. I felt so sad and upset because I could not be with her during that difficult period. I went through days of deep depression and I even got upset with God for what was happening, why was this happening again? Why to our family? Hadn’t it already been enough? I demanded crying.
But God, in His immense love, consoled me through prayers and I encouraged all of my sisters, my daughter and nieces to pray and to fight this disease and the sadness that surrounded us with prayers to our almighty God and Jesus.
The blessing was that Brenda had already gone through all that and she was able to be of great support. This was a clear example of how God uses all things for good purposes. Brenda was able to accompany and support Tany because she had already gone through the same experience and none of the other sisters would have done a better job.
Tany has recovered and continues with her treatment with medications, and thank God, her last tests came up negative.
I decided to join the Sister Study because I want to do whatever is possible to fight this malevolent and silent disease, which always catches us by surprise. It has been very frustrating to see my sisters suffering and going through it, because there was not much I could do for them at that time; but in honor of all of their suffering, I’m offering my time as a small grain of sand that could somehow help find a cure so that other women would not have to go through the same thing.
I encourage all “Sisters” to join this study. Let’s leave the role of victims against an illness that has no compassion and let’s attack it with courage by giving a little bit of our time in support of the valuable effort of the Sister Study. I’m sure that if I told you that this research depends on you, you would not doubt participating, not only for our own well-being but for that of humanity at large. Let’s give a little of what we have received, HEALTH.