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Beyond the ribbon: Unveiling the complex realities of breast cancer (Final part)
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Public awareness campaigns have successfully cast breast cancer into the global spotlight, typically framed through a uniform lens of pink ribbons, early detection drives and triumphant stories of survival. While these initiatives have driven vital mammography compliance and research funding, they often perpetuate a sanitised narrative. Beneath the polished public messaging lie complex, less-discussed clinical realities and emotional burdens that patients, families and healthcare providers must navigate long after the initial medical milestones have passed.
Moving towards an honest discourse
Acknowledging these untold truths does not diminish the incredible advancements achieved in modern oncology; rather, it humanises the patient experience. Expanding our cultural understanding beyond the simplistic “warrior” trope allows for deeper institutional support, better long-term medical management and genuine empathy for the lifelong journey of survivorship.
When people see breast cancer in movies or awareness campaigns, they usually see a neat story: someone gets diagnosed, goes through treatment, rings a celebration bell and goes right back to normal.
In real life, the journey is much more complicated. Let us break down five “hidden truths” about breast cancer using everyday examples.
Truth 1: The “Post-Treatment Cliff” (Life after treatment)
What it means: Everyone thinks that once medical treatments, such as surgery or chemotherapy, are over, the patient instantly returns to their old self. In reality, that is when a whole new set of challenges begins.
The example: Imagine finishing a gruelling uphill marathon. You cross the finish line, but your legs are still shaking, you are exhausted, and everyone else goes home while you are left trying to recover. Many survivors deal with long-term side effects, such as constant tiredness, numbness in their fingers or swelling, called lymphoedema, for years.
Truth 2: Catching it early is great, but not a magic shield
What it means: Early detection saves lives, but some types of cancer are so aggressive that even a small tumour can behave like a runaway train.
The example: Think of weeds in a garden. If you spot a weed early, you can usually pull it right out. But certain aggressive “weeds” spread seeds everywhere or grow roots so fast that even finding them early does not stop them from trying to pop up somewhere else later.
Truth 3: The long, hard marathon of daily pills
What it means: For many survivors whose cancer is hormone-receptor-positive, treatment does not stop when surgery ends. They may have to take hormone-blocking pills every day for five to ten years.
The example: These daily pills act like security guards keeping the enemy away, but they can also bring troublesome side effects, such as joint stiffness, sudden hot flashes or weakened bones. Because of this, taking the medication can feel like a daily chore that reminds patients of the cancer for a decade.
Truth 4: People we forget about (Men and young adults)
What it means: Public campaigns often focus on older women. Because of this, other groups affected by breast cancer may be caught off guard.
The example: Men can develop breast cancer, too, because they are born with a small amount of breast tissue. However, because some men think it is a “women’s disease”, they may ignore an unusual lump in their chest for months, resulting in a later diagnosis. Young adults under 40 face a different shock, having to worry about fertility, having children and career interruptions right in the middle of building their lives.
Truth 5: The hidden price tag (Financial stress)
What it means: A medical diagnosis brings a heavy second burden: financial strain.
The example: Even with good health insurance, additional costs can pile up quickly, including specialised scans, genetic testing, expensive prescription drugs and taking weeks or months off work to recover. It can feel like dealing with two crises at the same time: trying to heal the body while worrying about bills.
Talking about these harder truths does not mean we should not celebrate survivors. It simply means we need to understand the real, full picture of what people go through.
By Robert Ekow Grimmond-Thompson
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As soon as a married man becomes infected with the he-goat mentality, he is bound to forget that he has a wife.
It is often a tragedy because he can completely lose focus and generally start misbehaving. He considers his wife a headache, at best a pain in the neck.
The man has got a new girlfriend and is excited. And when he sees his wife, he wonders what she is doing in his home. Maybe she is only a stray dog in need of shelter. And Jesus Christ, won’t she just keep out of the way?
The married man who has gone into extramarital affairs is half the time engaged in mindless fantasy. He is engrossed in devising many ways to please his newfound lover. And if the girl is explosive in bed, the fantasy could spiral into the fourth dimension.
It could be that his wife is basically an “old layer” who can no longer take him to the heavens and back. The girlfriend, however, can take him on a trip into space, meandering through the galaxy of stars, down the Milky Way. It can be an experience of a lifetime.
Normally, after such a trip, the married man will forget that he even has a home and children. He becomes a fugitive.
What he needs is deliverance. So his wife will go to the pastor and tell him that her husband has developed very strange symptoms.
First, the man is behaving practically like a he-goat, sniffing desperately after young women. Secondly, he cannot find his way back home.
The pastor is likely to diagnose the ailment on the spot. He does not need to conduct a blood test to offer a prognosis. “It is the spirit of lust,” the man of God will say. “The Lord is in control.”
Sometimes prayers are effective, and the man heads back home. For very curious reasons, he remembers that he had lost his way. So he returns to his family, wondering what might have been happening to him. So long!
Other times, prayer worsens the case. It is not that the prayers are not being answered. God has only given the lecherous bloke a long rope on his own balls. It is as if the prayers drive him further and further away from the world of reason. For as long as three years, his soul is restless. It is in bondage!
The man forgets that the young girl he has been riding will one day marry and leave him in the cold. That day will surely come.
Now, when a married man is jilted by his girlfriend, he remembers that he has a wife. He had almost forgotten that he went and wedded a woman and called her his wife.
The jilted man will lick his wounds and trace his way back home. His wife would wonder whether he had lost his way. Anyhow, she will welcome him back home.
He becomes the loving husband he once was, and his wife is amazed. What might have happened to her man? Was he struck on the way to Damascus? Or on his way back?
When the man is sober, he will decide to calculate how much he has spent on that useless girl who said she was going to get married to some equally useless cockroach.
He realises that, in the short span of sexual enjoyment and extramarital bliss, he has lost all his lifetime savings, enough to build two-storey buildings.
Last Saturday, some youths who distinguished themselves in various endeavours were awarded at an excellence awards ceremony.
The males should always have it at the back of their minds that chasing women is what brings down both the weak and the strong, the poor and the rich, the lettered and the unlettered.
This article was first published on Saturday, August 26, 2006.
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There are things we cannot understand as human beings. How do you explain a lady who has led a promiscuous lifestyle and yet gets a very good husband and marries easily, while a devoted Christian lady who has led a holy life is still struggling to find a man to marry?
A pastor who is genuinely called by God lives a life that is evidently Christian in every sense of the word, yet remains childless. The painful thing is that he prays for people who are seeking the fruit of the womb, and they get pregnant and have their prayers answered.
How do you explain this?
A woman gives birth to a single child, who grows up to become a Minister of State. Then, one fine day, he is involved in an air crash and dies. The family’s prominent member, the only child of his mother, is gone just like that.
This then causes the mind to dwell on the Scripture in Romans 11:33: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”
A pastor once preached about an incident that occurred in the United States. According to this well-renowned preacher, he was invited to preach in a church, but a few days before the appointed time, he received a call from the host pastor informing him of some terrible news.
The host pastor narrated how two of his prominent leaders, who were deeply involved in publicising the scheduled programme of the visiting preacher and inviting people from door to door to attend, had been involved in a gruesome accident. On their way to invite people at some addresses, a vehicle crashed into them at an intersection, killing them instantly.
The visiting preacher then asked the host pastor, “So what do you want me to do? Do you want me to pray, exhort, or will you tell me what to do? I will do it.”
The host pastor replied that he would pray about it and call him back. He called him later and said, “Pastor, you are not going to believe this. There is a revival.”
The host pastor went on to narrate what had brought about the revival. The wives of the two men came to him and said, “Please take us to where the accident occurred because we want to continue what our husbands started.”
The pastor was reluctant at first, having visited the scene earlier and seen the wreckage and blood. He felt that the sight would unsettle the women. However, they were insistent, so the host pastor reluctantly obliged.
At the scene, they searched through the wreckage and picked out a couple of cards bearing the addresses their husbands had intended to visit before their untimely deaths.
They then went to those addresses, showed the people the cards and explained that their husbands had been on their way to invite them to the programme when they lost their lives. They said they would be grateful if the people would accept their invitation to attend.
Word quickly spread, and it turned into a mass invitation.
According to the visiting pastor, when he arrived at the church, reporters were everywhere, together with a huge crowd. God had turned a tragedy into something useful for His own glory. Lives were won for Christ in numbers that ordinarily might not have been possible.
Indeed, His ways are past finding out. What we consider terrible can be turned into something beautiful by the Lord.
All we need to do is trust Him and accept the things that happen to us, if we are indeed His children, because He is a good Father who is also faithful.
No matter what we have gone through, are going through or will go through, let us rest assured that He is in control of affairs and that He shall ensure that all things work together for our good.
God bless.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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