When she first heard the word cancer, she couldn’t believe it. At her age, cancer was something that happened to other people—older people, sick people, but not someone like her.

“It all started with a simple check-up,” she recalls. “I wasn’t expecting anything serious. But then the tests came back, and suddenly, my whole life changed.”

Her doctors initially thought she had a benign cyst, a common misdiagnosis for younger patients. But after further examination and a biopsy, the truth was undeniable—it was malignant. The news hit her like a tidal wave.

“I kept thinking, ‘How could this happen to me? What did I do wrong?’ But there’s no answer to that. Cancer doesn’t care who you are or how young you are.”

She was quickly referred for surgery, undergoing a procedure to remove the tumor. The operation was complex, but necessary.

“The recovery wasn’t easy,” she admits. “There was a lot of pain, and a lot of waiting—waiting for my body to heal, waiting for the next step, waiting for the doctors to tell me what comes next.”

Despite the physical pain, the hardest part was the uncertainty. “The worst thing about cancer is the unknown. You don’t know if the treatment will work, you don’t know if it will come back. You just have to take it one day at a time.”

Following her surgery, she underwent chemotherapy, which came with its own set of struggles.

“I lost my hair, my energy, and sometimes, my optimism,” she says. “Chemo isn’t just about fighting cancer; it’s about fighting everything else that comes with it—nausea, fatigue, pain, and the mental toll of watching yourself change in the mirror.”

She also experienced severe night sweats and joint pain, side effects that made daily life difficult.

“Some nights, I would wake up drenched in sweat. My whole body felt like it was on fire. My joints ached like I was suddenly an old woman. It felt unfair.”

Despite the discomfort, she stayed determined and focused. “I just told myself, ‘It’s temporary. It will pass.’ I had to believe that.”

Through it all, she leaned on her family, especially her mother. “She was always there. She never let me feel alone. Even when I was exhausted, she was by my side, making sure I was okay.”

She avoided searching online for cancer information, choosing instead to trust her doctors. “The internet is full of horror stories. I didn’t want to scare myself even more. Every case is different, and I decided to trust my medical team.”

To distract herself from the challenges of treatment, she kept doing the things she loved, playing mahjong after chemotherapy. “Some people think cancer means you have to stop living. But I refused to sit around and feel sorry for myself.”

Now, as she moves forward with ongoing check-ups and endocrine therapy, she wants to share a message with others going through a similar experience.

“Stay positive. Cancer doesn’t define you. Your mindset is everything—if you let it consume you, it will. But if you decide to keep living your life, even in small ways, you take back control.”

When asked what she would say to someone just diagnosed, her answer is simple:

“Trust your doctors. Don’t listen to fearmongers. Take it one step at a time, and don’t let it steal your happiness.”

She knows the journey isn’t over, but she’s ready for whatever comes next. “I don’t know what the future holds. But I do know that I’m strong enough to handle it.”