We spoke to two incredible women about their journeys facing and conquering cancer.
Make Wellness A Practice
Gabrielle Akal is a phenomenal young lady who works as a shoot stylist, social media manager, copywriter and pop-up gym owner in sunny Umhlanga. She shares her story with us about a journey of learning to listen to your body and ensuring that we keep up with our routine checks and doctor visits.
“I knew something was up with my body at the beginning of the year, but I couldn’t tell what it was,” she says, recounting her experience after a routine GP visit with her doctor, who happened to be her gynaecologist too. She reminded Gabrielle to get her annual pap smear done, “Which I had avoided for 18 months,” she explains.
The results came back with abnormal cancerous cells present in her cervical area. After seeing two specialists and getting second opinions, it was decided she needed to have a procedure to get the cells removed.
“The surgery was simple and quick, and I was only in the hospital for the day. I didn’t need to stay overnight,” she recounts, “Recovery hasn’t been too taxing, with very little pain, and there was some discomfort and bloating, which is to be expected.”
She tells us that she went back to moving her body after taking some time to heal and feels much better compared to the discomfort she experienced earlier in the year. “Now, I need to ensure I go for regular check-ups to check that the cells haven’t returned and make sure I’m still on track to being healthy and happy!” Gabrielle exclaims.
She shares insight from this experience: “Listen to your body’s warning signs and don’t take them lightly. If you feel a change in your body, take note and do something about it.” She also encourages ladies to make time for their routine pap smears and gynaecologist visits.
“Cervical cancer is an extremely common type of cancer amongst women and easily fixed if detected in time,” she explains, “If you’ve got friends who haven’t been to a gynaecologist in years, please remind them!”
As one of the biggest takeaways from this experience, Gabrielle urges, “HUG and KISS your people. Life is short, and God knows I wouldn’t have made it through this year without mine by my side.”
Flip the Coin
If you ask Anjil Naidoo who she is, the first word she’ll tell you is “mother” and “grandmother”. Her priority in life is first her family. All else follows. Anjil is a businesswoman. Having always aspired to be independent, she found her passion in the aviation industry and opened the first aviation school in KwaZulu-Natal! You can see her love for her community through the lively conversations with those around her.
Towards the end of 2019, Anjil started feeling unwell. She couldn’t do those tasks she previously handled with ease, “I went to my GP first, and then took it from there,” she explains. In early 2020, she went to a lung specialist and was diagnosed with carcinoid cancer in the third lobe of her right lung. “I immediately had to have surgery,” she says, “I was presented with this situation and had to act almost instantly.” She went through with the surgery, and the entire lobe was removed.
Due to COVID being at peak levels, Anjil had to leave the hospital earlier than expected. “Back at home, I still felt sick, and this continued for a while,” she shares, “I first thought it was part of the healing process, but there were instances where I had to be rushed to the ER in the middle of the night.” After a PET scan, she was found to have third-stage ovarian cancer. “So, again, I had to psych myself up to have major surgery,” she explains, and this was in August 2021.
A routine PET scan in November 2021 presented choroidal cancer in her eye. She went to an oncologist in Johannesburg, where she was diagnosed, and in February of this year, she underwent gamma knife surgery on her eye.
The knocks just coming, and hardship lingered on her mind. Being who she is, Anjil captured the silver lining in her situation. While battling cancer and going through her healing process, she to writing a script for Aladdin and the Wonderful Land based on the original One Thousand and One Nights to keep her mind focused on something other than her illness.
Creating world-class theatre has always been a wish of hers. The production became a passion project for her, “I wanted to give the artists a platform to showcase their talents, a chance to be back on stage after COVID closed off so many chances,” she explains. She describes the show as having diversity on a platform, with something in it for everyone, from children to grandparents.
Some words of advice from Anjil, “When you speak to someone who has cancer, or any illness for that matter, you can’t dictate to them how to handle it.” She asserts that the experience is different for everyone, so there’s no “one-size-fits-all” solution or advice.
“The first thought when you hear cancer is that you’re going to die,” she explains, “But, if you just flip that coin, you can look at that situation with the mindset of how you plan to overcome it.” “My mind did wander into the darkness, but I told myself, ‘You’ve got this girl!’ and I focused my mind on how I could conquer this,” Anjil concludes.
Words: Cristina Govender
Photo Credits
Gabrielle Akal: Michigan Behn Photography and Courtney Warren Photography