Cheryl Kire Achumi. File Photo
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2021
Dimapur, October 5 (MExN): A cancer diagnosis can transform one’s life forever in one way or another; initially, often overwhelming. The story Cheryl Kire Achumi is no exception.
Everything was going smoothly in Cheryl’s life until May 2014 – when she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
“After the cancer was detected and I was told about it, my whole world came crashing down,” she recalled. “At first, I could hardly even believe that something like that could happen to me. However, after some time, I had no other option but to accept the harsh reality.”
However, hers is a journey of how she beat the odds of cancer and started a new chapter of her life by becoming an entrepreneur, and inspired others. Her remarkable journey is narrated as a part of “Project Her&Now.’
Born and brought up Dimapur, Cheryl graduated with a Hospitality Management and later obtained a Bachelor degree in English.
She took up a few jobs in the hospitality industry, before deciding to switch to the telecom sector by joining the then Aircel in 2005.
Concurrently, Cheryl dabbled with her own side businesses in the form of a tent house, a service apartment rental and later on a tea garden along with her husband.
By 2010, she quit her job to pursue entrepreneurship full-time. Married and mother of two children by then, life was going in right trajectories for her, but her world “came crashing down” with the diagnosis.
“Then began the grueling fight to defeat the cancer – which lasted for many months. I had to sell off or give away (to my friends/relatives) my existing ventures, and started focusing entirely on my recovery,” she narrated.
‘Grueling fight’
As a part of her treatment, Cheryl had to undergo 3 clinical operations, 6 rounds of chemotherapy and 15 rounds of radiotherapy.
With the ongoing treatment and recovery, her body and mind were encountering pain, stress and anxiety; she also gained a lot of body weight.
At this juncture, she realised the utmost necessity of working on her core strength to get back in shape and become healthier and fitter.
Accordingly, she visited various gyms in Dimapur city but was dismayed to discover that none in her locality had proper amenities or trainers to cater to her fitness goals.
She ended up working out at home instead under the guidance and supervision of her husband Abraham Botoking, a banker by profession and a fitness enthusiast as well as a certified personal fitness trainer.
Over the next several months, as Cheryl started making fitness an integral part of her life, and the duo started discussing about the prospects of starting-up an entrepreneurial venture around enabling high-quality fitness for all.
Her husband, by then had quit his job to support Cheryl’s entrepreneurial aspirations.
Birth of City Gymn
And this is how City Gymn, the first-ever gym in the city with a dedicated ‘women’s fitness section’ incorporated into their facility, was co-founded by the fitness-lover couple in September 2016, with first centre at 3rdMile area, Dimapur.
To cater to growing customers demand, another location was added in 2019 in Burma Camp area, Dimapur and the enterprise had served the fitness needs off over 400 clients from in and around Dimapur.
The vision of the gender-inclusive gyms is “to aid people to take care of their health and fitness goals in a wholistic manner," she maintained.
Reflecting on her remarkable entrepreneurial journey, Cheryl stated that the troubling thought that there “must be so many around me and like me – who might be struggling to find a proper fitness centre equipped to handle the special cases with expertise, is what moved us to action instantly.”
When the realisation dawned, she started the journey and there was no looking back.
“Through the years, our fitness centres became an inclusive space for people of all age groups and socio-economic backgrounds seeking fitness trainings. And we are happy to have witnessed so many transformations and success stories of our clients,” she narrated.
Not someone to rest on her laurels, Cheryl upgraded her credentials over the years to become a certified diet and nutrition coach and certified fitness trainer.
Today, she a member of various national and international cancer survivors’ peer groups, and has organised and/or been a part of a number of events to motivate and highlight the inspiring stories of many cancer survivors of the North-East Region.
COVID-19 setback
Following the COVID-19 outbreak starting last year, Cheryl’s business faced a major blow, and she had to let go most of her enterprise’s employees and close down the 3rd Mile centre.
However, it did not break her Cheryl’s entrepreneurial spirit, just as cancer couldn’t defeat her in the past and following the easing of restrictions, she and her husband started a home-based centre to cater to the fitness needs of aged persons and select clients who needed special attention – which in turn helped them to sustain the enterprise and keep its cash flow going on.
They also launched a futsal (5-a-side football) centre last year, and this year, started a new venture in the form of a pre-school.
Now that the pandemic is subsiding, Cheryl is hopeful of opening up her fitness centres once again, while she also plans to open a football coaching centre in her neighbourhood to enable local youngsters to stay fit and healthy through indulgence in sports.
In the long term, Cheryl’s dream is to start a state-of-the-art fitness academy in Nagaland – which will be built and positioned as a one-step fitness destination for all.
Project Her&Now
Cheryl was part of “Project Her&Now’s Entrepreneurship Support Programme in the North East Region in 2019, which enabled her to formulate a business expansion plan and introduced her to various innovative avenues to grow her venture.
‘Her&Now - Empowering Women Entrepreneurs’ is implemented by Deutsche GesellschaftfürInternationaleZusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and in partnership with the Government of India’s Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
In Nagaland and in other North East, the Project is running in partnership with ‘Dhriiti-the Courage Within’.
Speaking about her association with Her&Now, Cheryl said that highly informative programme gave with various new insights and skills through plethora of workshops, seminars and mentoring sessions, benefited her and her business immensely.
In addition, she informed that the programme helped her to meet so many women entrepreneurs from the North East, and learning from their stories and experiences has inspired her further.
“Even after the programme is over, we are still collaborating and networking along with the fellow Her&Now entrepreneurs,” she added.
Breast Cancer Awareness
Every year, October is observed as the Breast Cancer Awareness Month in a bid to spread awareness related to screening, prevention, early detection and treatment of breast cancer, as well as to share the inspiring stories of breast cancer survivors. A recent report by the Indian Council of Medical Research states that breast cancer is the most commonly prevalent form of cancer amongst Indian women.
Although, the good news here is that for most breast cancer treatments, the probabilities of survival are 80% or higher -- especially when the disease is identified at its early stages.
Cheryl’s journey was narrated as a part of the Project Her&Now’s campaign to create awareness on cancer and share inspiring stories survivors.
