Journalist shares ‘supremely rough’ journey after cancer diagnosis

When pains associated with breast cancer jolted former journalist and editor Petre Williams Raynor, she could have thought of no other way to ease her anxiety other than by putting pen to paper.

Now, one year after her diagnoses in September 2020, she has written enough to release her book, titled I Am Not My Breasts.

In an interview recently with The Gleaner, Williams Raynor explained that she could have thought of no other way to inspire her fellow breast cancer warriors to continue to fight the dreadful battles, than by writing about her own journey.

“I discovered the lump on September 11, 2020, and the confirmation came in the latter part of September,” she explained.

Williams Raynor said she decided to start writing I Am Not My Breasts immediately after her diagnosis.

“When I was diagnosed with cancer, I just knew as a writer, based on the experience of the previous illness, I knew that this was going to be helpful for me,” she said.

The previous illness she refers to is pre-eclampsia, which caused her to lose a child. She wrote a newspaper series about that experience.

“That really took a toll. What I found beneficial at the time, was doing a whole series of articles on the issue of pre-eclampsia. So I got in touch with a number of women, who themselves had the illness and told their stories, and I found that it was enormously therapeutic for me,” Williams Raynor told The Gleaner.

After her cancer diagnosis, she was resolved on doing another publication.

DECISION TO JOURNAL EXPERIENCE

“From day one, I knew I was going to be writing something about it, whether it is that I was going to do a series of articles, or I was going to do a blog, or I was going to do a book. I knew that something was going to have to be written, even if that something was restrained to the journals,” she said.

Williams Raynor told The Gleaner that she took notes both during her visits to the doctor and after she did her chemotherapy sessions, and also wrote about how she felt.

“Ultimately, all of that resulted in the book,” she said.

She decided to release her book in September, on the brink of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so that she could inspire women “to get their screening done early, access the best possible care that is available to them, and to survive”.

Williams Raynor, communications manager at the Ministry of Health and Wellness, said breast cancer took her by surprise.

Before her diagnosis, she had been working under pressure for months in 2020 with the publicity of the Government’s efforts to control the coronavirus (COVID-19), so when she felt the lump, at first, she thought it was just stress-related.

“Up to September 11 last year, things would have been supremely rough. I was experiencing no symptoms or anything, but what happened over that weekend of September 11 is that I had an opportunity to just step away from work for just a weekend, my husband and I; and I say it in the book, ‘It slowed me down long enough to actually discover the lump’,” Williams Raynor told The Gleaner.

DISCOVERY OF LUMP

She added, “There I was at this hotel, taking a breather from what is a very hectic schedule and what had been a very hectic few months, when I was nudged by the lump. When I felt it first, I was like, ‘Hold on, is this a lump?’ and I called my husband and said, ‘Come check this out for me’.”

Her husband, Kayon Raynor, confirmed that it was cause for major concern.

Immediately, she called her obstetrician-gynaecologist and scheduled an interview for the following Monday.

“I’m that person if I feel like there is something a little bit off in my health, I immediately go and investigate it, and so there was no question of my delaying,” she said.

After her visit with the obstetrician-gynaecologist, she was sent to do a breast ultrasound, a mammogram, and the lump was further confirmed.

She then found an oncologist and a breast surgeon.

“The decision was made to take a neoadjuvant approach, which is where you do chemotherapy first before doing surgery. And once surgery was done, then a further determination would be made as to whether you needed to do any kind of radiation, based on the kind of results you would have received from the other aspects of treatment,” Williams Raynor explained.

Next, the woman who once rocked lengthy locks had to cut her hair and transform her image into one with a low-cut hairstyle.

She told The Gleaner that she did her surgery in May and that there is no need for her to do radiation.

“There was an upwards of 90 per cent remission of the mass from the chemotherapy, so the chemotherapy worked, and worked beautifully; and then I subsequently did surgery,” she said.

She added, “Now I am cancer-free, thanks be to God, and I am working to stay that way.”

BALANCE

Williams Raynor said she tried to balance her work demands, chemotherapy treatment demands, and family demands.

“In a lot of ways, work was a wonderful distraction. It was hard. It was not the easiest thing to deal with cancer; trying to come to a place of acceptance that, in fact, you have a lump in your breast. That was difficult … . I had to come to terms that I had this thing. Then I had to wrap my mind in terms of what needed to be done in terms of treatment, and then I needed to get through the treatment, while at the same time, managing what was going on in my professional life. For me, I’m a bit of a workaholic; always been, so that work became, in a way, that kind of salvation. It was a chance, and I explained this in the book, to almost step away from the enormity of the experience I was dealing with,” she said.

She further explained, “I would go to chemotherapy, for example, and then I would come back to the office, and it was a kind of chance to break from the reality that I was dealing with this potentially deadly disease, so I really welcomed work. It was a distraction. It was also an opportunity to kind of not have cancer be the central focus of everything.”

Williams Raynor is elated that her work over the years has allowed her to be able to afford insurance, which assisted her with financing her treatment, and she encourages all women to be insured or seek alternatives.

“When it comes to financing [breast cancer treatment], this is incredibly expensive. To the extent that you’re healthy now, I would recommend to women who are in a position to afford it, to get some kind of chronic care policy with one of these insurance companies. Talk to your insurance provider and see what is available, based on your income and so on, what you can afford, because you may be hale and hearty today and then tomorrow you are being told you have breast cancer,” she said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com