ÐÓ°ÉÐÔ°É

Just two months after saying 'I do' to her husband Steven Thomson, 33-year-old Lesley-Ann Touzalin-Thomson received the devastating news that there was a tumour growing in her right breast.

She told THE STAR that although her breast felt strange, the thought of being afflicted by breast cancer didn't cross her mind because she was breastfeeding.

"I wasn't actually feeling the tumour, I wasn't feeling a lump, per se, because I just had two babies. I had babies in 2020 and 2021. So after having kids, your glands are more swollen because of the breastfeeding. So you're not able to detect lumps, per se," Touzalin-Thomson said

What brought her attention to the severity of her condition was the heaviness in her right breast, dimpling in the skin of her breast, and her nipple becoming inverted.

Although the cancer was discovered in her right breast, she chose to do a double mastectomy to ensure that it did not spread.

"It was an emotional journey but I knew it was the right thing to do, because, being age 33, I don't have the gene. But it being an aggressive cancer, I know that if I didn't remove the other breast, then there was a possibility, a high probability, that it would have come back in the other breast. So I had to be just as aggressive as the cancer," Touzalin-Thomson said.

She added that the realisation of her situation hit her hard, because she had three young children who needed their mother.

"I was devastated. I looked up and I said, 'Lord, you gave me three kids, and it seems like my life is short now'; 'cause people just naturally believe that once you're diagnosed with cancer, it's a death sentence," she said.

"I was shocked, I was scared, I wanted to scream. But with them being so young, and I having an older child, I woke up and said, 'Listen, it's time to fight to still be here'," Touzalin-Thomson added.

She admitted that the situation hit her oldest son, who was 12, the hardest.

"Going to school and telling his friends, 'You know that mommy has breast cancer and she has to travel'; you know kids, they don't understand. They're so innocent, they would say, 'You know, I had a family member that had cancer and they died'. It was very hard for him to understand what I was going through," she said

Despite the challenges, she said the disease has drawn her and her husband closer together, physically and emotionally.

Currently, Touzalin-Thomson has to seek medical care in the US because the medication she needs to survive is not available here.

"I'm a triple-positive breast cancer patient, which means that I'm estrogen-positive, progesterone-positive and HER 2-positive," Touzalin-Thomson said.

She has encouraged her fellow breast cancer fighters not to give up.

"Keep fighting, keep fighting the good fight, always advocate for your health and never give up. Never ever, ever give up. I know it is emotional, it is draining. But one thing I learnt from my alma mater Holy Childhood [High School] is, after the battle, the reward, and the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory. So never give up," Touzalin-Thomson said.