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There was no lump, no swelling, no bruising, just an itch, a deep, relentless itch.

So Cannad Vassell thought it was nothing serious. It may have been hormonal, or maybe it was eczema. She had fibroids in her breast before, so it made sense that this was just another benign flare-up.

"The itching was unbearable. I had to be using a cream every day just to make it bearable." She kept applying it, hoping for relief. The itching would ease, then return. When she pulled at the nipple, it felt like the skin was separating. Still, she pushed through, working overseas on the H2B programme in the US. One afternoon, she mentioned her ordeal to a church sister who prayed with her, then gently insisted she visit a cancer clinic. That check-up led to a biopsy in August 2019. Then came 'the call' a month later. A voice on the other end told her what she wasn't prepared to hear: breast cancer.

"I zoned out. Everything went quiet. I remember asking the doctor if it was because I had my second child over 40. I was trying to make sense of it. But she said no," she said. Vassell was alone in a foreign country, without a health card, and had been diagnosed with a disease she didn't fully understand.

"It was a struggle being away from my family and fighting an illness that scared me," she said. "When I got home that day, my roommates asked if I was okay. That one question made me break down."

Back home, the diagnosis weighed heavily on her family. Her 17-year-old son didn't pass any of his CXCs, and her younger son was confused about why "Mommy has the same haircut like me!" To this day, she won't let her husband, or any barber, cut her son's hair.

"I don't enjoy seeing bald heads. I didn't choose to be bald, the chemo took it from me. That wasn't me." She compared the experience to being a live chicken being plucked, feather by feather.

Vassell began 16 rounds of chemotherapy. Six weeks away from completing treatment, she was told the mass wasn't shrinking. It was one of her lowest moments. Still, she pressed on. Her mastectomy was performed on April 27, 2022. She was offered breast reconstruction, but doctors couldn't save her nipple. She told THE WEEKEND STAR, "That's where the cancer was hiding. That's why I didn't feel a lump."

She now undergoes detailed checkups every six months and is in remission. Though the scars remain, she said the illness humbled her.

"It shaped my character and deepened my relationship with God," she said. Vassell is now a member of Reach to Recovery, a survivor support group connected to the Jamaica Cancer Society (JCS). She promised herself that if she survived, she would encourage other women to pay attention, even if it's 'just an itch.' That's why she's participating in this weekend's Relay for Life, the JCS's signature fundraising event. The walk returns to the Police Officers' Club in St Andrew this Saturday, under the theme 'Walking Together with HOPE.' Executive Director of the JCS, Roshane Reid-Koomson, said the event is more than symbolic, it's a fight for national survival.

"Our health system cannot successfully treat every single person diagnosed with late-stage cancer. That's why early detection isn't optional. It's critical." She added, "We urge Jamaicans to join the fight before cancer becomes personal."