Thriving With Life

Emotional strength is crucial when it comes to _ battling an illness such as_ breast cancer. We speak to survivor Sophia Chin, as well as doctors and a local support group, on how one can find the care and support they need after a diagnosis.

- Lin Yangin

“Congratulations” isn’t the usual first response to a cancer diagnosis, but that’s what Sophia Chin said to a friend who had reached out to share the news.

“I said, ‘Congratulations for going to the doctor, because that took courage,’” shares Sophia, 45, who is undergoing treatment for Stage 2 breast cancer herself. “There was a lump, you were suspicious, and you took action. That’s a good thing.”

This is in stark contrast to some of the responses she got when she broke the news of her own diagnosis in 2022. “People on the whole were very supportive, but some said things like “‘What happened?’ ‘What did you do?’” she says. “It makes you feel very guilty, like, ‘What did I do wrong?’”

The mother of two doesn’t mince words when it comes to the disease and the treatment process – “horrible” – but is equally emphatic when it comes to stressing a point that many medical professionals concur with: “Breast cancer is not a death sentence.”

“They say one in 13 women gets breast cancer, and it made me realise, if it wasn’t me, it would be someone I know. You can’t run away from it. So we need to realise that it is not a death sentence. There is amazing support out there, and we need to talk about it more,” she says.

Dr Elaine Lim, senior consultant from the Division of Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Centre, Singapore, notes: “With early detection, breast cancer is not a definite death sentence. Even with metastatic breast cancer nowadays, survival rates [of certain subtypes] have improved.”

THE FEAR OF CANCER TREATMENTS