Car­ol Quash

Five years may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but for breast can­cer sur­vivor Sade Weekes, it could very well have been a life­time filled with many changes–some bad, but some not so bad.

She was di­ag­nosed with stage II­Ib in­va­sive breast car­ci­no­ma in 2020, dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. This type of can­cer grows in­to the chest wall or breast skin and can spread to near­by lymph nodes.

Af­ter en­dur­ing 16 cy­cles of chemother­a­py, a sin­gle breast mas­tec­to­my, and 15 ra­di­a­tion ther­a­py ses­sions, Weekes went on to found the on­line-based non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion The All Can­cers Group of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ACGTT) in 2023. Treat­ing the dis­ease had tak­en its toll, but her ex­pe­ri­ence nav­i­gat­ing the health­care sys­tem re­shaped her out­look on life and ex­posed the gaps that ex­ist in can­cer care.

She ex­plained that these gaps in­clude can­cer aware­ness and in­ten­tion­al sup­port for pa­tients, sur­vivors, and their care­tak­ers, start­ing from the very mo­ment of di­ag­no­sis. Her in­ten­tion is to use ACGTT to pro­vide trans­for­ma­tive help for can­cer pa­tients that goes be­yond phys­i­cal treat­ment.

“We’re a small group of peo­ple who are pas­sion­ate about try­ing to help the can­cer com­mu­ni­ty as much as pos­si­ble. Be­ing a can­cer sur­vivor, I’ve had the unique per­spec­tive of see­ing the is­sues from the in­side,” she told WE mag­a­zine in a phone in­ter­view.

Al­though it may seem am­bi­tious, Weekes’ vi­sion for the two-year-old group is to build a net­work of can­cer sup­port or­gan­i­sa­tions–in­clud­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal and med­ical ser­vices–to cre­ate a hub that changes the per­spec­tive and con­ver­sa­tion around can­cer.

“Our so­ci­ety, in gen­er­al, is not con­cerned enough about our health, and many of the dis­eases we face can be avoid­ed with health aware­ness, di­et, and lifestyle changes. ACGTT is try­ing to change that through an ed­u­ca­tion­al aware­ness cam­paign that we are push­ing heav­i­ly on so­cial me­dia.”

She ac­knowl­edged that while a num­ber of groups al­ready pro­vide var­i­ous types of as­sis­tance to can­cer pa­tients, no one or­gan­i­sa­tion can meet every need. Her aim, there­fore, is to cre­ate that wider net­work of sup­port.

So far, ACGTT has worked with or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the Trinidad and To­ba­go Can­cer So­ci­ety, and the Min­istry of Health has al­so as­sist­ed on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions.

“The South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty has pro­vid­ed gen­er­al screen­ing ser­vices for the events we’ve held so far. We’ve been able to of­fer Pap smears and breast ex­ams through the mo­bile clin­ic, along with blood glu­cose and blood pres­sure test­ing. For our men­tal health sem­i­nar, they al­so pro­vid­ed men­tal health screen­ing. They are do­ing their best to get in­for­ma­tion out to the pub­lic.”

For Weekes, con­nect­ing with oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions feels like re­ceiv­ing the ba­ton in a re­lay race–the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of con­tin­u­ing to ed­u­cate the pub­lic about can­cer and sup­port­ing those af­fect­ed is be­ing passed on, es­pe­cial­ly as more young peo­ple em­brace the work of these groups.

“So we at ACGTT are not do­ing this alone; we’re not sep­a­rate and han­dling things on our own,” she said.

The group has al­so turned its at­ten­tion to the men­tal health chal­lenges that come with can­cer. “This year we held our first men­tal health and can­cer sem­i­nar in May dur­ing Men­tal Health Aware­ness Month,” she not­ed.

Weekes, who al­so runs Sade’s Song­birds mu­sic school, con­sid­ers her­self for­tu­nate to be able to set her own work­ing hours, as re­turn­ing to work af­ter can­cer treat­ment can be a ma­jor chal­lenge.

“This is some­thing I want to shed light on. We just launched our vir­tu­al sup­port se­ries, so every month we have li­censed psy­chol­o­gists, med­ical doc­tors, prac­ti­tion­ers and sur­vivors speak­ing to the pub­lic about men­tal health, self-care, and the role of the care­giv­er as it re­lates to can­cer. Every­thing is can­cer-re­lat­ed.

“And one of the is­sues that doesn’t get enough at­ten­tion is what life is like for a can­cer sur­vivor re­turn­ing to the work­place. Our bod­ies don’t al­ways func­tion at 100 per cent. There are days I wake up and sim­ply have to rest. Some­times I can­cel half my day to slow down. Our bod­ies have been through so much; it takes years to re­cov­er from chemother­a­py, and many peo­ple don’t re­alise that.’

One of ACGTT’s wider goals is to cre­ate a Trinidad and To­ba­go where every­one un­der­stands can­cer pre­ven­tion, ear­ly de­tec­tion, and treat­ment, and where no one has to face the bur­den of can­cer alone, re­gard­less of their fi­nan­cial sit­u­a­tion or the type of can­cer they have.

“By en­cour­ag­ing reg­u­lar screen­ing, rais­ing aware­ness, pro­vid­ing sup­port and ad­vo­ca­cy, time­ly di­ag­no­sis and in­ter­ven­tion can save lives and cre­ate a health­i­er fu­ture for all,” Weekes said.

Now en­ter­ing her sixth year as a sur­vivor, she has been do­ing well. “My scans have been clear thus far. I at­tend the breast clin­ic once a year now, which is a good sign be­cause if they were see­ing me every few months, it would mean they need­ed to mon­i­tor me close­ly. I bless God for that.”

She con­tin­ues to care for her health, tak­ing her med­ica­tion dai­ly, though it comes with chal­lenges. “I still ex­pe­ri­ence hot flush­es, and I’m in a med­ical­ly in­duced per­i­menopausal state be­cause of the type of can­cer I had. The hor­mones we nat­u­ral­ly pro­duce–oe­stro­gen in par­tic­u­lar–feed it. So part of my long-term pre­ven­ta­tive treat­ment in­volves an in­jec­tion that stops my men­stru­al cy­cle and gives me menopausal symp­toms at 34. It’s a lot, but ex­er­cise and di­et help.”

Her jour­ney has not been with­out com­pli­ca­tions. “I al­so de­vel­oped Type 1 di­a­betes af­ter chemother­a­py, so I now take in­sulin dai­ly. It’s an­oth­er big ad­just­ment to man­age on top of every­thing else.”

Still, she re­mains ground­ed in faith and op­ti­mism. Like many breast can­cer sur­vivors, she takes it one day at a time. “I’m speak­ing it in­to be­ing that I’m go­ing to be okay.”

For in­for­ma­tion, fol­low The All Can­cers Group of Trinidad and To­ba­go on Face­book, Tik­Tok and In­sta­gram.