Chubala
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Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | October 11
Strength, courage, faith and positivity— these are the virtues that seem to define 65-year old Chubala, who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in February 2019. The road ahead was not going to be easy but she embraced her ever-changing life status with an air of positivity and that seemed to change everything.
“There was no pain but I felt the lump growing,” she recalls. When her test result confirmed that it was cancer, the feeling of ‘being scared’ did not even feature in her mind. She was not going to let the disease take her down. Even through the painful process of a breast surgery, six cycles of chemotherapy and 25 series of radiation, she chose to remain positive, inspiring everyone around her to calmly sail through the storm.
She had just returned from a routine checkup when The Morung Express caught up with her on Saturday afternoon. “I also had a kidney removed in the year 2015 and then cancer happened last year, but through it all, God has been by my side,” she professes. “I am able to live normally,” she goes on to say while relating instances of her post-hospital visits when loved ones come, expecting to see her in bed but she is moving about doing normal things.
“God has been so good to me and given me so much strength. My children also ensure that I eat at the proper time, and I am doing well,” she puts across. Chubala has 5 children including 4 daughters and 1 son. She has been cancer-free since August 2019.
Her eldest daughter, Moayangla, who has been there every step of the way, recollects, “At first I was very scared when I learnt that it was cancer because she also had one of her kidneys removed. I was even afraid to give the news to my aunts, but my mom was very brave.”
“The fact that she accepted it very bravely was half of the battle won for us,” she goes on to say while adding that “if she was afraid, it would have been a very big challenge for us.” “Even when her hair started falling after her first cycle of chemotherapy, she might have felt something inside of her but she never showed she was afraid or that she doesn’t want to do this or that,” Moayangla further recollects.
Perhaps it was her positive spirit that remarkably helped her recover. “We have seen many cancer patients suffering, becoming weak and bed-ridden to the extent of their health being so weak that we cannot even look at them. But there has not been a single day we have faced such problems. It was only when she was doing chemo that she would be in the hospital for such long hours,” she puts across.
“It is really amazing how she has recovered and is looking healthier,” she expresses. The daughter who has played a crucial role in her mother’s journey of cancer says, “I am glad I could do something for her.” “My other sisters take care of all her diet and all of us are taking care of her in one way or the other,” she adds.
‘Fighting cancer is not a very small thing’
Having experienced the difficult journey of cancer in the family, Moayangla also shares, “nowadays, many people are suffering from cancer and I just feel that we don’t have to discriminate them. They are suffering and we must help in whatever small ways because fighting cancer is not a very small thing.”
Substantiating this, she says, “the patient, the family members, everyone is going through a very difficult time, we feel that even all our dreams are shattered when we hear of cancer.” “Luckily for me, my mom’s cancer was curable, and it was not so difficult for her and for all of us but there are many people suffering from cancer, which are not curable, and it’s even difficult to see the patients when they are suffering,” she articulates.
People, she emphasizes, must be aware of all these sicknesses and problems while pointing out that “cancer is something which does not come out suddenly, but is a disease which has been accumulating for so many years.”
Towards this end, she also observes that “we, Nagas don’t go to see a doctor for regular checkup” while explaining that “when we are healthy and we are not suffering from something, we never go for checkup or consultation.”
“But I think we should see a doctor once in 4-5 months or at least once a year, and have all our organs examined by a doctor so that we can prevent all the diseases,” she adds.
