World Cancer Day means more when the disease moves into your house

Before, World Cancer Day barely registered. It was just another awareness day among many; one more reminder about sickness that quietly slipped past.

If I am being honest, like many people, I was consumed by my own life, detached from a sickness that did not feel personal or immediate.

World Cancer Day is marked every year on 4 February and is led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), established in 2000. In South Africa, the day is highlighted by the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA).

According to World Cancer Day, “Cancer is a disease that occurs when changes in a group of normal cells within the body lead to uncontrolled, abnormal growth forming a lump called a tumour.”

“If left untreated,” it explains, “tumours can grow and spread into the surrounding normal tissue or to other parts of the body via the bloodstream and lymphatic systems.”

My perception of the day changed last May when my dad was diagnosed.

Until then, my understanding of cancer came straight from television: families crying, patients sitting through chemotherapy, and, eventually, death.

That was my first thought, very simple yet terrifying: my dad is going to die.

Watching someone you love suffer

There is nothing theoretical about cancer when it arrives in your home. Nothing prepares you for watching someone you love suffer. I saw my dad in pain, barely able to walk.

My heart shattered in ways I did not know were possible. People tried to comfort me with words and prayers, but at the time, it all sounded like nonsense.

“How do they know?” “How can words fix this?” These were the questions I asked myself. They didn’t know what I was going through – what my dad was going through.

Looking back now, that anger and disbelief has softened into understanding. I understand where they were coming from.

The prayers and reassurances did not cure the disease, but they came from a place of hope. And hope, as it turns out, matters.

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A growing crisis in South Africa

CANSA emphasises that while every cancer journey is different, people affected by cancer share a common goal.

“Cancer is unique, yet people touched by cancer are united in a shared ambition to see governments implement policies to improve cancer prevention,” the organisation said.

However, CANSA CEO Elize Joubert warned that South Africa faces a looming cancer crisis.

“In South Africa, with our approximately 60 million people, the cancer incidence is set to double by 2030,” Joubert says.

“It’s projected that there will be an incidence of 220 000 new cases by then.”

These numbers are no longer just statistics to me or families living through diagnosis, treatment and uncertainty.

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Fighting, hoping, remembering who you are

Today, I understand the movement. I am no longer blindsided by awareness days, because I can relate.

My dad still has this horrible disease, but he is much better. Some days, you forget that he is fighting a war inside his body. Hope does not cure cancer, but it carries you through the darkest moments.

To cancer survivors, you guys did it, well done! To those who fought until their last breath, you gave it all, and I am sure you made your families proud, proving just how resilient you were.

To those still fighting, you got this; do not let it consume you. You need to attack back.

As Desperate Housewives character Edie Britt once said: “You are the strongest person… you need to remember who you are. Screw cancer.”

Once cancer hits home, awareness stops being symbolic. It becomes deeply, painfully personal.

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