Warrior Moms

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among Indian women, increasingly affecting those under 40. Four supermums tell us how cancer altered their bodies but shaped their resolve and helped them soar.

- Rajashree Balaram

ACCORDING TO breastcancerindia.net, of all the cancers affecting women in India, breast cancer accounts for a mighty 27 per cent (one in every 28 women in India is likely to develop it in her lifetime, and one in every two women diagnosed will succumb to it). Compare these disturbing statistics to those in North America, Sweden and Japan, where survival rates are as high as 80 per cent! So why the difference? “Women don’t pay enough attention to their bodies here, while they are busy looking after their families,” says Neerja Malik, double lumpectomy (lump removal) survivor and founder member of Apollo Cancer Support Group, Chennai. The 63-year-old feels that much of the apprehension is closely tied to our notions of desirability: “When you are young, you can’t bear to see that ‘feminine’ part of your body altered beyond recognition. But I tell women to tell themselves, “My boob is gone, but I am alive.” How can you not be grateful for having the chance to continue to live?”

Here, four survivors tell us how they decided to not let cancer rob their enthusiasm to live.

“I am very body- confident.”

—Dilpreet Kaur Dua, 32, mom to Bickram, 4, and Mandira, 2, Delhi

first cut

Dua was diagnosed with breast cancer when her daughter was just six months old. “Initially, I assumed that the lump was an infected milk gland, but when the MRI and biopsy confirmed it as stage III cancer, I was numb. Even though I lost my mom to ovarian cancer and my aunt had breast cancer, I was not prepared to be struck so early in life.”

coming to terms