'I Am The Healthiest Person I Know', Cancer Survivor Creates Awareness About Health Check Ups

In an attempt to spread awareness about good health insurance, and the importance of regular health checkups, a former air hostess, Seema shared her story on International Women's Day 2022.

The first person account narrates her experience from first being diagnosed with stage two breast cancer to surgery and chemotherapy, Seema shared how she was able to keep her hopes high. Her story was first shared by her husband Nithin Kamath on Twitter. In his post, Kamath wrote, "Seema, my wife, was diagnosed with breast cancer last Nov. She decided to share her journey & learnings till now to create awareness on cancer & the importance of regular health checkups, health insurance & overall health & well being. Happy Women's Day." The social media user attached the link to his wife's website.

Breast Cancer Survivor Story Of Seema

On the web page, Seema started telling her story with the headline," I am the healthiest person I know and I got cancer." She talked about her like mental health, cancer is also a taboo in our society. Seema shared that because of her good financial condition, she was able to choose the best possible treatment and doctors and had the support of her family. She said, "Until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t spoken about my cancer to anyone apart from my immediate family and a few friends. While I am generally a private person, I also realized while going through all the tests and conversations trying to find the best doctor, that maybe I am not talking about it also because like mental illness, cancer is also a taboo in our country."

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Narrating her journey from being diagnosed in November 2021, Seema said that the cancer forming in body was diagnosed early because she regularly gets health check ups done. Still she felt that she could have found out about it two years before it was diagnosed when she noticed a deformity in her breasts after her son was born. Even though she got the treatment done and found nothing alarming, she regrets not having a mammogram. She said, "Maybe I should have done a mammogram back then. And yeah, a mammogram isn’t part of all health check-ups, something I hadn’t really cared about, maybe I should have."

She talked about her when she was informed that she will have to get mastectomy done, her husband turned it into a not-so-sad event. She wrote, "It took me a few days to make peace with it, maybe it got easier when in one of the conversations the plastic surgeon mentioned how many Bollywood and Hollywood heroines get a boob job done. And thus my mastectomy & cancer treatment became my boob job event for Nithin." Seema talked about all the hurdles and confusions she faced in the past four months after being diagnosed and was able to stay positive because of all the resources and support available to her.

Reiterating the reason she decided to share her story, she pressed on important things we all should be aware of. Regular health check ups, good health insurance and support of love ones. On health checkups, Seema wrote, "All of us tend to react only when there is an event. The best way to solve problems is before they happen. I want to again reiterate the importance of health check-ups. If I didn’t do my check-ups regularly, maybe I would have spotted cancer too late. And yes, regular health check-ups even if you can run 10 km in sub 40 mins." Read more here.