Feature: Namibian teen beats cancer

Finding out that, in a rare turn of medical events, she had stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 18, Reginalda Muronga was devastated. Cancer at such a stage is usually terminal. This news shattered every life's goal that she ever had.

"How could I have ambition and dreams when I was literally dead? When I received the news I did not see a way out," Reginalda said.

But, four years later, at the age of 22, this vibrant and upbeat young lady is alive and full of life mainly because of organizations such as the Reach for Recovery Support Group that helps families and individuals with cancer, cope with those realities.

Reach for Recovery uses trained volunteers to offer practical and emotional support to patients undergoing treatment for cancer.

Registered Nurse Christolina Kavetuna said that when people are diagnosed with cancer, they quickly envision death and so if they do not receive support, stress and depression will take a toll and make their possible recovery or remission much more difficult.

She said that it is even worse for teenagers because they had assumed that they have their whole lives ahead of them and so they feel life has betrayed them because they believe that they will not live it to the fullest and be able to do what other teenagers do.

As for Reginalda, when meeting her, one would never think that she was recently battling a life threatening disease that has claimed many lives the world over.

Her energy and captivating smile cover the scars of her tremendously brave journey to cancer survival. She overcame the impossible to one day make a difference in other people's lives, by telling her story and offering hope.

When she was eight years old, Reginalda felt a strange huge bump in her pelvic area. She had felt the lump before, but she was oblivious and naive as to what it was, she did not pay attention to it and only acted when the growth started bleeding.

Ten years later, the bleeding started again and this time it was more intense.

After consultations with different specialists where she had a biopsy, she found out she had stage 3 colon cancer which was fast progressing to stage 4.

Stage 4 means that the cancer has spread to other organs or parts of the body. It may also be called advanced or metastatic cancer.

"I took it very hard; I literally died in that consultation room," she said.

Reginalda who grew up in Windhoek was busy with her grade 12 when the cancer was discovered.

Luckily, this did not deter her and she passed with flying colors that she got an internship as a consultant at a foreign exchange company.

The internship helped her raise money for University and by 2013 she had saved enough to put herself through tertiary education.

She was put on medication and went through radiotherapy to see if there would be any changes but there was no improvement.

At that point, "I stopped living and I was just waiting for the final days," she said.

The depression took its toll and she got even sicker; she believed that she could feel the cancer in her body.

"I was becoming very forgetful and my body felt like a paper. I was frail and fragile. The cancer was going to stage 4 and it was becoming dangerous," she said.

Although she had given up, her caregivers including the nurses looking after her still had hope.

They encouraged her to keep fighting and to live a positive life with whatever time she had left. They let her see some small beauty in little things about life and refused to let her succumb to complete depression even with the condition.

As her medical condition worsened, the doctors finally decided to take the risk to remove the tumor, which they did in March 2015.

The fortunate part of Reginalda's specific case was that the tumor and cancer cells were apparently stuck in that specific area and had not spread to other organs. This is an extremely rare circumstance and changed Reginalda's prognosis considerably; it made surgery a more viable option.

"I had a 10 hour operation and they safely removed the entire tumor and infected tissue," she said.

After the operation, she was sent to Cape Town to check if she was cancer free and she was.

According to her, the emotional support she received from her nurses and doctors including that of volunteers helped her look at her situation differently.

"They gave me hope and encouragement that it was actually possible to beat the cancer," she said.

Currently, Reginalda is busy with her final year at the university studying for her Bachelor's Degree in Business Management.

"I cannot let cancer define who I am and who I want to be. This has made me strong. I was actually the first person in my family to pass grade 10 and go on to university. The people who gave me hope and support, encouraged me to go on and helped me make it through my lowest points. I am grateful to them for their care," she said.

Last year, the Reach for Recovery group visited and helped about 72 patients all around the country.

"We help both patients and family on how to cope with the situation," Kavetuna said.

The group has so far trained about 25 volunteers who function under the auspices of the Cancer Association of Namibia. The volunteers are called in to counsel and talk to cancer patients on how to live positively with the condition. Endit