October is Breast Cancer Prevention month and the emphasis is on getting women to get tested early. One of the champions for Breast Cancer Awareness is singer and broadcaster Marcia Miranda who is marking her tenth year as a cancer survivor. She spoke to Bobie-Lee Dixon about her battle with cancer and how she’s working with the Cancer Society of T&T to spread the message of early testing.
Singer and broadcaster Marcia Miranda’s story has been told before, but she feels she can’t talk about it enough, because she wants to empower and possibly even help save the lives of women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Ten years after her journey, she is stronger and more positive than ever. And this positive attitude was evident when the T&T Guardian visited the singer/songwriter at her Barataria home. In 1994, Miranda discovered a small lump in her left breast which at the time turned out to be benign. Ten years later the lump had grown and she began experiencing pains in the breast and in her armpit. Concerned, she visited a doctor, had a needle biopsy done, followed by a mammogram. She was diagnosed as having stage 3B breast cancer, which meant the cancer had extended to beyond the immediate region of the tumor and may have invaded nearby lymph nodes and muscles, causing the pain in her armpit. “I always knew about the importance of getting breast examinations for breast cancer. But when you are young, of course you don’t focus too much on it. Like most, I used to think, that could not happen to me. I exercised, I ate well, so it could not happen to me,” she said.
But when Miranda began having pains, she did suspect something might have been wrong and began preparing herself mentally and emotionally for the news, even before she was diagnosed.
“I prayed and asked God for discernment and for strength because I had the strongest feeling that I had a journey ahead.” And true to her intuition, something was wrong. “...The receptionist in the lab who was very bubbly when we first met, was not herself when she handed over my results. Her body language told me something was wrong. And right away I told myself, ‘yes Marcia you have cancer.’” With this in mind, Miranda took the envelope, ran out and stood on the sidewalk. “As I opened it the first thing I saw was ‘malignant,’” she said. “Of course fear was the first feeling, because you don’t know what’s going to happen to you, what this is going to do to your body or if it’s going to kill you. So you really have to come to terms with the fact that you really do not know anything about it so you now have to place your life in hands of someone else.” She chose the hands of God. Miranda said she told God she wanted to live and asked Him for extended time to get a chance to find and live her true purpose.
Having support is important
The first person Miranda told about the results was her sister Marguerite. Miranda’s first words to her sister were: “Maggie I don’t want you to break down, I need you to be strong.” Her sister began to cry, but even then an optimistic Miranda remained strong and assured her sister that she was not going to lose her. One day at a time, along with her family, Miranda began her steps towards healing. With the tumour now measuring three centimeters in size, her doctor advised the first thing she needed to have was surgery. “I had to decide whether to do a mastectomy or a lumpectomy.
This was my biggest issue for the first couple of weeks and then my second was finding the money. Because it was $30,000 for the surgery at that time.” Still indecisive the day before her surgery, Miranda said she asked her doctor for guidance. “I said to him, doctor, when we go into that theatre tomorrow, I want you to look at me and imagine I am your wife, your mother, your daughter or your sister and make a decision on what’s best for somebody you truly love and care about. “I told him I needed to just do what was best for me at that time. Yes I am an entertainer and I would rather not lose my breast, but if that is what it came down to for me to save my life then so be it,” she said.
After the surgery, she was covered in bandages and swore she lost her breast, but to her surprise it was not removed. “My sister was there throughout the entire surgery and when I turned and looked at her, she said to me, you are ok, you still have your boob,” Miranda said with a chuckle. During the surgery, lymph nodes were also removed for testing to see if the cancer had spread to Miranda’s lymph system. Unfortunately the cancer spread and the next step was chemotherapy.
Under the supervision of Dr Peter Bovell at the National Radiation Centre, Miranda completed six cycles of chemotherapy, while also on oral medication—cocktails—which were quite expensive. One cocktail alone cost about $14,000. To take care of her medical bills, Miranda’s family and friends held some fundraising activities. “I did a boat ride and all my entertainer friends came together and we did a concert and that is how I was also able to save my life too, because had it not been for them, where was I going to find all this money for my treatment?”
ENDURING CHEMO AND TREATMENT
Chemotherapy for Miranda was debilitating and rough, because of the aggressive dosages prescribed by Dr Bovell. “He felt I was strong enough to receive that dose and then of course I was at stage 3B which is considered to be advanced. So he wanted to make sure that we really got to those cancer cells.” After two weeks of chemotherapy, Miranda recalled passing her hand through her hair and seeing bundles of it falling out. “It was like a wig falling off my head, so I just shaved it all off. Other side effects included extreme fatigue, vomiting, diarrhoea eye pain, loss of taste and smell and hot flashes.”
After chemotherapy it was on to radiation. This process though was like cake compared to chemotherapy, Miranda recalled. “Radiation went on for about 35 days. It is not painful. It does not put you through as much as chemotherapy does. But it is very tiring. It’s like sitting in the sun all day because the radiation is very hot. Some patients were actually burnt because the heat is so intense. I was burned on my stomach area,” she said, pointing to the left side of her lower torso. Radiation also caused Miranda’s finger and toe nails to turn blue-black. After this, Miranda was supposed to do a PET scan which is an imaging test that uses a radioactive substance called a tracer to look for disease in the body. However, at the time there weren’t any PET scan machines in T&T.
“Most patients usually go to Venezuela or Miami to get it done,” she mentioned.
Miranda had another mammogram and a few ultrasound examinations that showed there was no trace of the tumor. As she never did the PET scan, she didn’t know if there were any remaining cancer cells, but that was okay for the former flight attendant. “Doing the PET scan would not have changed things. I had made my decision about what I was going to do and whether I had done the PET scan and found cancer cells in my body, I was still going to do it.”
ALTERNATIVE THERAPY IN RECOVERY
Instead of worrying about cancer cells, Miranda opted for alternative therapy. “While I was doing chemotherapy I was drinking a lot of wheatgrass (a highly concentrated liquid from the wheat plant, that is high in chlorophyll), which was pretty instrumental in detoxifying my system from the toxins created by chemotherapy.” Upon completion of her medical treatment, Miranda started visiting the Eden Heights Clinic, a registered alternative health care institution, located at the time at Aripo Heights. Miranda began receiving oxygen therapy and was placed on a six-month raw food diet.
“For six months all I did was eat raw vegetables, no cook food. Just raw fruits and vegetables and a lot of juicing all day long.”
She noted that after the first three months of treatment, she saw a significant change in how her body and skin looked. “I could see that I was changing and because I could see that I also knew that change was taking place on the inside. I think my whole cellular structure was changing. I was taking in pure oxygen, in the form of baths, saunas etc. So my system was being constantly purified and I was eating pure raw food. So my body had no choice but to clean out itself. I remember thinking there was no way those cancer cells, if there were any, could survive in my body. And I was confident about that,” she said. Today, even though she knows that many doctors do subscribe to the alternative route, when asked for advice, she says there is no harm in taking both routes, because she did. And because chemotherapy breaks down your immune system, seeking alternative care can help you rebuild your body. Up to now, Miranda still adheres to a strict vegetarian diet.
POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND MOVING ON
“Being positive during that trying time was hugely instrumental in saving my life. I would not have been able to do that on my own. Like I said before having my friends, family and even doctors be positive about it really helped me to remain that way. “I was really fortunate to be surrounded by positivity because when someone has been diagnosed with a terminal illness or a life threatening disease, they don’t want to hear about the doom and gloom. They want hope.” Becoming a volunteer at the Cancer Society of T&T also assisted in Miranda remaining positive. “A lot of newly-diagnosed people were being sent my way. So I had to be strong by default and that was really good for me. I think that was actually one of my greatest blessings. I really did not have the time to sit down and think about me. I just buried myself in the activities going on at the Society and let the doctors do what they had to do while I focused on my spiritual healing,” she said.
The work she did with the Cancer Society also made her aware of all the good work it was doing, like providing subsidised treatment and screenings. In this month, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Miranda has endorsed the Payless Breast Cancer Awareness Initiative, by speaking about breast cancer and encouraging the public to get tested early. She is also supporting the sale of the Payless Bracelet, as a percentage of funds raised from the sales goes to the Cancer Society’s hospice, Vitas House. A happy Miranda is also enjoying the success of her latest parang soca hit, Corn Soup, which is receiving some decent rotation on the airwaves. As a presenter on Heartbeat Radio 103.5FM, she gets the opportunity to speak about all aspects of life and provide meaningful counsel to her listeners.
She remains positive about life and her experience and even though she lost a sister and some friends to the disease she conquered, she continues to chart her way in life with good faith.
Miranda left this bit of advice for women: “Early detection is always better and now with all I know, I am begging you women to get out there, get your screenings and mammograms done, it can save your life.”
ABOUT THE PAYLESS INITIATIVE
For the fourth consecutive year Payless ShoeSource is supporting the fight against Breast Cancer, by donating the equivalent of US$1 from the sale of each 2014 Payless Breast Cancer Awareness bracelet to The Cancer Society of T&T. In 2013, Payless, through the generosity of its shoppers was able to donate all net profits to Vitas House at the end of the promotion. The iconic pink ribbon is an integral part of The Payless Bracelet which will be used to spread the message across the twin islands about the benefit of early detection in the fight against breast cancer in women of all ages.
Throughout October, which is Breast Cancer Prevention month, the limited edition Payless Bracelet will be on sale for $20 at all Payless ShoeSource Stores across T&T. Payless customers who purchase the bracelet will receive the additional incentive of a 20 per cent discount.