If I could turn back time by 7 years and give myself a message it would go something like this: “Someday this will change and you’ll be in a better place that is almost unimaginable right now, but first there are some things hard and unconventional things to do.” However, at the time I was sick and couldn’t see beyond my condition, as my kids grew up they started to show symptoms similar to mine. The doctors couldn’t find a reason for the migraines, the anxiety (social and otherwise), behavioural issues, mood swings, diarrhoea, learning difficulties and tics that were our collective list of symptoms. “I was completely oblivious to the impact of food intolerances, and I had never even heard of gluten.” On the recommendation of a friend and being out of all other options, I took home a food intolerance kit. The test results came in the mail on Sunday when I had been out for a big celebration for my husband’s birthday. The list of foods I was supposed to avoid was too long for me to process at the time but the two food items I was asked to run from were “Gluten” and “Dairy”, written in bold font up at the top.

At 40 years of age, I was happily married with three kids. I was looking forward to growing older, seeing my children go their own way and enjoying my sunset years. I was preparing my retirement investments and settling into the best years of work. But I got diagnosed with cancer and the earth fell off from underneath me. Within a month I was told I had stage four cancer and if both breasts weren’t removed cancer would spread to the rest of my body. I didn’t even have time to come to terms with the devastation. I was given one week to prepare for surgery and the next morning I woke up without my breasts. I had three operations, seven months of chemotherapy, and five weeks of radiotherapy. “I made my way back all the way from stage four cancer and a double mastectomy.” I am in remission now and it took me a long while to realize that it was okay to cry and grieve for the part of me that I had lost both emotionally and physically. My body will never be the same again but it doesn’t mean that I can’t continue to live the life I lived prior to my diagnosis.

As the family’s first child of his generation, my nephew Eric was everyone’s favorite. He used to be a blue-eyed chubby angel, and we couldn’t do without him around. One night he woke up from his sleep and couldn’t breathe. A trip to the ER told us what we weren’t ready to hear. Eric was diagnosed with asthma. “Asthma changes your life but does not need to limit your life” Today, ten years later, Eric is a healthy young boy with as healthy and active a lifestyle as any other boy in his class. But on that night in the ER, we could scarcely imagine how we would help Eric cope with his illness. Not only has Eric learned to work around asthma, but he now takes it in his stride. The last ten years have been a learning curve for Eric and everyone around him. I think we have learnt a great deal and by sharing it we hope others will learn as much. “Over 235 million people across the world suffer from asthma” Asthma is commonly seen in children and in many cases, it subsides with age. However, with millions of patients, the disease stays and can even progress.

Any form of cancer is a dreaded life-threatening condition. This holds true even more so with breast cancer , which can affect a woman’s feelings about sexuality, attractiveness, and motherhood leading to depression, social isolation, and loneliness. Diagnosis and an effective treatment plan alone do not aid the complete recovery process. You need a dedicated support system in place, in the form of friends and family, to get you back on your feet. Little did we know, on noticing things such as the swelling of breasts , nipple retraction, and pain, redness or thickening of the breast skin; that there are the symptoms of breast cancer . Post mammogram examination, the news dawned on us to discover that my eldest sister was suffering from this devastating condition. To make matters worse, we had waited too long to consult a doctor. She was already in the fourth stage of breast cancer . We couldn’t afford to lose hopes and break down as a family because if we did she might find no strength and confidence to cope with the condition further.   As a first step, the doctor advised undergoing a double mastectomy, with both breasts to be removed via a surgical procedure.

On my 25 th birthday, I woke up and had my regular breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. While chewing on the bacon I had a realization. “I actually don’t like this,” I thought to myself, while the bacon was being masticated in my mouth. “You know what, I actually don’t like meat and poultry,” I said to myself, after swallowing the chewed-off meat. And this is when I turned to vegetarianism. No one forced me, no one advocated it, no one suggested it. “Being a vegetarian was solely my choice.” It was a unanimous choice by my body and my mind. My body craved healthier foods while my mind kept telling me that eating animals was unfair. My biggest problem was that I knew nothing about vegetarianism. I never thought about the nutrients I got and the possible deficiencies I could have.   This was the when I first realized how clueless about food I was . I believed in myths that never existed. “It’s impossible to survive without meat,” everyone I knew would say. “Vegetarians suffered from malnutrition and have lower energy than meat lovers,” people close to me said. “It’s expensive and the meat cravings are unbearable,” my family said to me.