Now 16 years cancer free, visually impaired Mekyla Belgrave says that every day she feels like she is leading a very different life from that of her friends.
According to Mekyla who turned 17 recently and who is visually impaired after undergoing cancer surgery as an infant, her life is different from that of her peers because she underwent cancer surgery as an infant and she finds it uncomfortable having to explain her blindness sometimes.
“I always feel like my life is different from my peers,” she related while speaking about her life now that she is cancer free. She said that she could not recall the events of the surgery or having cancer because she was a baby at the time, but her mother would usually tell her about what took place. “Mommy does like, tell me what happened,” the teen told this newspaper.
Her mother, Celeste Belgrave, said that when Mekyla was born on March 5, 2004 at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), the medical officials did not want the infant to leave the hospital. She said that after a few days passed, after querying the reason for not being allowed to take her child home, the doctors responded that Mekyla seemed to have mucus in her eyes, but gave no further explanation.
She said that about two months after Mekyla was taken home, the family started to notice the glossy-like mucus covering the infant’s eye. The family then decided to take Mekyla to the public hospital but doctors there couldn’t detect the reason for the mucus which would build up over her eyes. Celeste recalled that the mucus would have Mekyla’s eyes looking as if there was a contact lens over her retina. Many doctors examined the infant’s eye but none could say what was wrong and she was always sent home with no answers. But the teen’s family still suspected something more serious was happening to the eyes. Eventually, her mother took her to an eye specialist, Dr George Norton, who recommended that the infant be screened and diagnosed the issue as cancer.
She was told it was necessary to travel out of the country for treatment since the procedure for the removal of the cancer could not be performed locally. With help from the Ministry of Health, Dr Norton, Volda Lawrence, Chair of the People’s National Congress Reform, and family members, arrangements were made to travel to Barbados to have the operation done but some difficulties arose. They were then referred to Trinidad instead. Makayla was diagnosed as having advanced bilateral retinoblastomas, a cancerous tumour in the retina.
Mekyla was enrolled at the GPH’s cancer clinic after she was diagnosed at seven months old. Celeste said that Mekyla’s condition was progressing at a rapid rate while they were in Trinidad and it was for this reason that the surgery was performed on Mekyla’s left eye first. At this point, they had hoped she would be able to keep one of her eyes but the doctor informed them that the cancer had already spread to the other eye and that the cancer cells had already taken over 70 per cent of the eye. She and Mekyla’s father then had to make the decision to have both eyes removed. Celeste said she made the decision to let her daughter have a healthy cancer-free life even if she would be visually impair-ed. Mekyla had to undergo about six months of chemotherapy before she could return home as well as be monitored for five years to see whether the cancer would return. March 5th marked 16 years since she has been cancer-free.
According to Mekyla, having cancer as a baby doesn’t affect her as much as having to explain how she became blind. “My problem is kind of dealing with being blind,” the teen explained. She said that she wears dark shades to hide her eyes but her classmates would often ask her how she became visually impaired. “I does tell them how,” she informed, however she added that sometimes it can be uncomfortable being asked about it and then having to explain the story. When she is asked but feels uncomfortable sharing, she said she would be very vague with her responses. “To be honest, sometimes I does be vague with them. I don’t really want tell them like what happened. You know, I had cancer and the doctor take out my eye. Some-times I does just tell them I had a disease and I had to take out my eye,’ Mekyla said.
She currently attends the North Georgetown Secondary School and shared that learning is a bit complicated but she copes well with getting her school work done. Mekyla graduated at the top of her class when she wrote the National Grade Six Assess-ment and told this newspaper that she is pursuing options to study abroad when she graduates from high school. She also said that making friends in school isn’t difficult and that she likes meeting people. Mekyla is a member of the Periwinkle club, which is a support organisation for breast and cervical cancer survivors, among other cancers. Through the Periwinkle Club, she is able to meet other survivors and persons who have cancer. However, she said that she hasn’t met anyone with the same cancer as the one she has survived. She added that she would go to camps and other activities and along with Dr Gooding, would have talks. These help her to cope.
Celeste advises parents to take the risks which will enable their children to live healthy lives. She told this newspaper that when she made the decision to have both of Mekyla’s eyes removed, many persons had made negative comments about having a visually impaired child, but she was more concerned about having a healthy child. She said that the removal of the organ meant that her daughter would be cancer free and her decision was based on that.
