Coping with cancer

Carrying the South African flag in a ceremony alongside 64 other countries represented at the summit, Bev du Toit’€™s story is one of pain and fear, but ultimately one of triumph and hope. The summit is not only about giving government leaders and non-governmental organizations an opportunity to network, make commitments and share best practice models, but also a platform for cancer survivors to share stories of hope alongside Lance Armstrong, the universal face of cancer survival.

Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1996, Du Toit faced surgery and chemotherapy before going into remission a year later. However, she had identified a massive lack of information around her condition and decided to change that.

‘€œWhen people used to say ‘€“ oh, things happen for a reason, it really used to tick me off. I decided that I needed to give meaning to what had happened to me, I needed to find the reason behind what had happened to me,’€ says Du Toit.

Du Toit and fellow survivor Denise Bernstein wrote a Cancer Survival Kit which covers facts around cancer, the emotional impact of the diagnosis, nutrition and cancer and looking at how to live positively with cancer. Lotto funding has seen the kit, available free of charge, translated into Afrikaans, isiZulu and seSotho and Du Toit is hoping for it to go global.

A regional manager at the Cancer Association of South Africa, Du Toit believes that the Dublin summit has the potential to change the face of cancer. ‘€œIt’€™s wow, it’€™s really amazing for people working in cancer to be here and for everyone who have been working in their corners of the world to be able to share problems and victories and realise there is so much we can share without having to reinvent things, that is really amazing,’€ said Du Toit.

She describes the contribution of Armstrong, seven times Tour de France winner and a testicular cancer survivor, in the fight against cancer as ‘€œhuge’€. ‘€œIn South Africa he has given a young face to cancer as there is this very real perception that cancer only happens to old people or people who don’€™t look after themselves,’€ she says.

Summit delegates heard this week that cancer is set to become the biggest killer by 2010, however it has not received the same attention as diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS and increasingly tuberculosis. Du Toit believes this is due to the focus being on HIV. ‘€œIt had to be, it was an immediate problem and something had to be done. Cancer is more of a slow and lumbering problem and I don’€™t think the world ever realised the problem was this huge. In South Africa we’€™ve always known that cancer affects one in four people, but we never realised the universality of the problem,’€ she said.

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