In 2015, Rodell Hinds had a visual inspection of cervix with acetic acid (VIA) done and cancerous cells were detected and presumably treated through cryotherapy, with follow-up treatment done the following year. In 2016 she also had a partial hysterectomy after she was diagnosed with a uterine problem which brought on extreme pain and bowel issues. By 2017, she was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer.
Hinds was immediately placed on chemotherapy, but she was advised by a doctor that because of the late-stage diagnosis the treatment would not have gotten rid of the cancer but prevented it from spreading to other parts of her body. But she felt like the chemotherapy was “killing me” and she decided, after a few sessions, that she would have no more of it. She is now on herbal treatment and has since changed her diet to vegan.
“I felt like lying down to die,” Hinds told the Sunday Stabroek in an interview. “I did that for a while, actually. I laid down and just allowed life to get the best of me. I had started having the chemo, but I was ready to give up. But as a mother when I looked at my children and I believed in God, so I realized that there is something to hold on for and I trust in God and I know I will live.”