27 Aug When life throws a curveball
Diyora’s life changed drastically when she got diagnosed with Cervical Cancer, resulting in her moving countries in search of a healthy life
Imagine living a normal life. Looking after your home and family, enjoying the company of your teenaged children and going about your life like any other homemaker. Then suddenly finding out you had Cervical Cancer! Out of the blue and most unexpectedly. That’s what happened to Diyora Gulshod.
42 year old Diyora, came to India from Uzbekistan for Cervical Cancer treatment, when CAPED team met her. Diyora shared with CAPED community mobilisers that she was living a normal life with her teenaged daughters and son. She had no symptoms of Cervical Cancer and had normal regular menstrual cycles with no visible irregularities. Suddenly, she started feeling fatigued and suffered lower back pain. However, as most women do, she ignored these symptoms for a long time. The alarm bells rang when she had heavy vaginal bleeding.
The doctors in her home country tested her, and found that she was suffering from Cervical Cancer. She was advised to immediately start Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy – the standard Cancer treatment recommendations. She preferred coming to India for the treatment, and is in remission (cancer free) with the last successful chemo session getting over recently.
On counseling with CAPED community mobiliser, she has realised how easy and important it is to get screened early in life. Despite her illness, Diyora was not aware of the vaccination until the community mobiliser informed her of the same. She has promised to get her teenage daughters vaccinated against Cervical Cancer now.
*Name changed to protect privacy.