OCT 2020 - Highway DBN

Living strong
Almost all breast cancer survivors will tell you that receiving a life-altering diagnosis
and hearing the words ‘you have cancer’ changes you in more ways than you can
imagine. October being breast cancer awareness month, we asked two brave warriors
Turning pain into purpose
to share their stories with us…
Text: Bronwyn forbes-hardinge
Shona Kelland
When you’re in the prime of your life,
things seem to be everlasting. You
feel almost invincible, like nothing
will ever slow you down or stop you
from achieving your dreams. But
for 48-year-old recruitment agency
business owner Shona Kelland this all
changed when she was diagnosed
with breast cancer in March this year.
After learning she had a rare and
aggressive form of breast cancer
(triple-negative), Shona had to act
quickly. And, as if fighting for her
life in the midst of a pandemic
wasn’t enough, she also suffered the
tragic loss of her mother. Instead of
crumbling under the enormity of it
all though, Shona has risen up and
chosen to turn her pain into purpose
in the hopes that it will change lives.
We meet Shona on a good day. She’s
feeling relatively strong after her most
recent dose of weekly chemotherapy.
She makes coffee and we sit in
her sun lounge overlooking the
picturesque valley below her Augusta
Ridge Eco Estate apartment. This has
been her home, her work station and
her recovery centre for the last six
months.
Shona shows us photos from a recent
shoot she did with her neighbour,
a professional photographer. The
powerful images without her hair and
revealing her scar capture the very
raw, life-changing journey she’s been
on. She hopes they can be used to
create awareness about the reality
of breast cancer and the fact that
nobody is an exception.
“There is no history of cancer in my
family. I think when this is the case
we tend to shrug off any possibility -
but I am living proof that it can affect
anybody.” Shona was diagnosed after a routine mammogram on 4 March, the
day after South Africa’s first COVID-19 case was announced. Her life changed
drastically, and the things and people she’d come to rely on, the energy she
thrived on and the adventures she looked forward to began to fade away.
“They found a lump which I didn’t even know was there. They did an ultrasound
and then a biopsy, which came back positive. I was shocked and asked myself
what on earth I did to deserve this. Then, it was simply, what next?”
Shona was diagnosed with Stage 1 triple-negative breast cancer which is
considered a very aggressive cancer.
10 Get It • Highway • Berea • Durban North October 2020