Ondo state First Lady, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, who survived breast cancer in the late nineties, has revealed her ordeal with the killer disease and how early detection played a key role in her survival.
Mrs Akeredolu said she was diagnosed with the disease in 1997 but did not inform her husband, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, until one week later.
She also stated that her husband was visibly worried when she told him she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
She said, “On that faithful morning when I felt something in my breast, of course, my mind raced to breast cancer because it was where such a disease was located.
"I was scared and didn’t know what to do; it happened when I was resting at home during my annual leave. It got me thinking that if this happened to be breast cancer, what was I going to do at that age? I was 42 or 43 and I had little children. What would become of those children?”
The Ondo First Lady, who is the Founder of the Breast Cancer Association of Nigeria, (BRECAN), said early detection was key to her survival and advised women to always examine their bodies for any strange development.
"A woman must be familiar with her breasts. If she is not familiar with how her breasts look like, there is no way she can notice any unusual change. When you tell our women to do this, they will tell you that ‘God forbid’, they are covered by the blood of Jesus; they are daughters of Zion,” she added.
Vanguard