Brave cancer survivor & awareness advocate Lorinda Mamo reveals her true strength
A gentle soul with positivity oozing out of her every pore, Lorinda Mamo is synonymous with local breast cancer awareness efforts, and never more so than in Pink October. Having had a close shave herself, she explains that she “was angry and negative for a very long time, but I realised it was doing no one any good at all.” She continues, “as soon as I started making small steps to be positive I started to realise how different life looked and felt.” Her awareness on how such an experience can happen to anyone at any moment is what motivates Lorinda to share her story so earnestly.
“When I found my cancer, it was by complete chance, and the thought of it still sends chills down my spine to this very day,” Lorinda admits, adding that the days surrounding the horrible event have become permanently etched in her memory. What was supposed to be another regular day started off with a visit to her son’s consultant.
Born with a very rare condition and a chronic kidney disease, he needed constant monitoring through fortnightly blood tests. “We had just received the news that his condition had stabilised and we were elated, to say the least,” Lorinda reveals. She recounts how barely two days later, she was holding her 15-month old son in her arms when she felt an itch. “I reached over to my right breast and I felt a lump - my heart sank and I felt nauseous,” she says.
Her first instinct was to call her sister, a doctor, who calmed her down and urged her to go for an ultrasound, which then turned into a biopsy. Due to having a radioactive substance injected into her body, she was not allowed contact with young children or pregnant women, resulting in further agitation from having her son kept away.
After multiple tests, it was concluded that she had stage 4 breast cancer. Doctors decided in favour of surgery, which left her unable to pick her son up for six weeks. “I’m glad he was too young to remember but it was torment for me,” Lorinda says. Further treatment included six rounds of chemotherapy, followed by radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Cancer would not be her only trial during this period as she reveals that her son underwent a total of five surgeries, two of which were life threatening, at the same time as she was receiving treatment.
While she admits that “it was hard emotionally, psychologically and physiologically,” her son helped her fight her own battles. “It might feel like the end of the world, but it’s not,” Lorinda insists. “You might feel like you are alone, but you are not. You might feel like no one will understand, but all you need to do is open up.” Realising that worry makes a situation worse is a critical step towards adopting a more positive and stronger outlook.
This perspective has now become her life mantra. Following a break-in this weekend, she reveals that the incident weighed heavily on her mind and the initial thought of invasion of privacy, lost possessions, fear and insecurity manifested themselves. “We get so caught up in life and think things can never happen to you, but they can," she explains. "The key is what you do when these negative experiences happen. Keep things into perspective and be grateful for what is real and true in life - health, family, love and support."
What an absolute force of nature Lorinda is!