The second edition of ‘Survivor’, an e-magazine which shares the experiences of cancer survivors, was launched last Saturday by the Giving Hope Foundation (GHF) during a gala and dinner at the Ramada Princess Hotel.
According to Dr Latoya Gooding, who conceptualised the foundation and the magazine, it gives each cancer survivor the opportunity to tell their story and share their journey and to positively impact the lives of others who may be new to being diagnosed with the disease.
Dr Gooding, who is an oncologist at the Georgetown Public Hospital and a strong advocate against the disease, told The Scene that it was not an easy task for her team. “We have been compiling stories for the past two to three months and the publishing and the reviewing and the prop-reading took about a month,” she said.
“Every year we have different cancer survivors telling their story whether it’s breast, prostate, whichever one. The only hiccup that we’ve had with the magazine is that we’ve been getting more females that want to tell their stories, some of the males don’t want to open up yet,” she added.
The young oncologist stated that her organisation’s main aim is to help cancer patients from the initial stage such as testing, up until they receive treatment and are declared cancer free. “Basically what the Giving Hope Foundation does is that it actually supports cancer patients, whether it be financially once we have that potential, we also support them by guiding them through their treatment, we also support them by having mental health counselling,” she said.
“The Giving Hope Foundation has also been doing outreaches where we try to detect cancer in its early stages or advocate for persons to go out and get screening done as soon as possible and we try to provide that means for them to get it done, whether it’s through teaching them on how to do the breast examination, having sponsors for mammograms, having sponsors for pap smears or prostate-specific antigen for prostate cancers…”
The GHF has brought a number of cancer survivors and cancer patients together. “We also had other cancer survivors who now form this survivorship programme where they encourage each other nutritionally and in whatever situation that they are going through they actually support each other through it,” said Gooding.
The current edition of ‘Survivor’ highlights the story of Francine Leitch, who was diagnosed with a rare case of cancer known as mediastinal dysgerminoma. This is commonly referred to as mediastinal germ cell tumour, which is similar to those that originate from the ovary or testes.
It also features the journey of 44-year-old Sarita Halim who greatly signifies the theme ‘early detection saves lives.’ Halim was like any other woman going through life when an invitation for a mammogram, which she was hesitant about, revealed that she had stage two breast cancer.
The magazine also features a number of other inspirational stories of various cancer survivors.
Gooding said the foundation is hoping to publish hardcopies, but sponsorships have been slow. As such, the foundation is urging the public and businesses to come forward and help.
The founder of the GHF said that the continued work of the organisation and the magazine could not have been possible without Omesh Balmacoon, Naudya Hoosein-Majeed, Myron Stephens, Dave Lalltoo, the sponsors and most importantly all of the survivors who fought with pride during their toughest battles.
