Ethnic Minority Cancer Awareness Week 6-12 July

As a collaborative venture between charities, this Week aims to increase the  awareness and early diagnosis of cancer among ethnic minority communities and groups.  It’s worth checking out their web site at;

http//emcaw.co.uk.

Hair Today

Yo! After months of being likened to Mahatma Gandhi when I am not wearing my natural hair designer wig by Abaka of Kennington, I have just noticed a small cluster of real hair sprouting to the right of my upper lip. Joy. Unspeakable joy!!!

Up Close & Personal on Ovarian Cancer

A June Follow Up to the March Post on Cancer

When I post, I try to write from a particular cultural location as a person of Africa descent with an English Jamaican national identity with residency in the UK. Whilst I write from my own experience, I try to be inclusive and not to restrict the meaning or value of my Postings to a single dimension of an individual experience. My postings are written as if I am speaking them. Like my Jamaican folk s/hero Anansi, I hope to spin a tale that has multiple meanings depending on the reader’s identification with the text that enables it to speak to multiple experiences.

My Posting Special in March on Ovarian and Prostate Cancer Awareness Month was written in that vein. I wanted to offer a hope filled contribution to the varied thoughts and feelings experienced by those of us with cancer, those of us without, those of us fearful of contracting it, those of us with friends and family affected by cancer and those of us who have lost family or friends to the disease. I deliberately did not want to offer a specific view, as I wanted to reach everyone and not just some. Hence whilst I wrote from a personal standpoint, it was not directly personal. Now is the time to be up close and personal and to “out” myself. I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November 2008 after an initial diagnosis of wind and then irritable bowel syndrome. The emotional shock of the unanticipated news was compounded by the matter of fact way I was informed of my illness. My pulmonary embolism (blood clots on the lungs) prevented a good cry at the time, as my chest hurt. Relieved that I hadn’t died of a stroke or a heart attack caused by the DVT, I was further relieved that it only affected a part of me that I could live without and that my vital organs were clear.

With abdominal surgery last December and subsequent months of chemotherapy, I am now medically in the clear as I will ever be. Currently I am recovering from the effects of the chemotherapy and getting my health back on track through a slow return to my fitness centre. Spending time in the gym, swimming pool and sauna is very therapeutic physically and emotionally. The warmer weather is an encouragement to resume my walks on the promenade by the sea, with jogging hopefully just a few improved breaths away. I am also countering the toxic effects of the treatment with vitamins and herbal supplements, aware that medically there is little guidance on an organised and informed recovery. I still find it difficult to believe that chemotherapy is an accepted treatment when it makes one more sick than the underlying illness. Telling people that I had recovered from surgery but was now sick not from cancer but made deliberately ill by the prescribed medication was bizarre.

My illness was mainly known to only friends and family who amply supported me emotionally and otherwise, in my sickness as they did, in my health. I never felt the need to confide in strangers or support groups and I valued accurate information on my condition. I am rather laid back by nature and this didn’t change significantly during my sickness. I had decided that I was not going to enter battle mode to fight the disease as I couldn’t be at war with myself. Whilst the cancer cells were an unwelcomed addition to my body they were still part of me and within my love for myself. Nor did I feel I was a victim or even now a survivor of cancer. I can see the therapeutic value of these identifiers for some but I prefer others. There has been so much in my life where I could have been a specific victim of this or a particular survivor of that. I do not see cancer as having any pre-eminence. It is one of many significant milestones on my journey. Life is more than survival, the quality is paramount and in the final analysis I am more than my illness, my ethnicity, my sexual orientation, my gender, my class. I am all these things and more.

On hearing my diagnosis I immediately thought my condition was terminal. Thankfully that thought was fleeting and did not return. I have conversed with God and I have been in a place where I have had balance in facing my medical realities. I may relapse but I will not be anxious in advance or worry about a premature death. I will go when I have fulfilled my journey with the Holy Spirit, who thoughtfully has provided the following reassuring words for those days when I feel a little fragile. And Jesus said…do not worry about your life…or about your body…Matt. 6:25. My existence in this temporal form has always been predicated on a view of the Divine, as my advocate. Yes God could have made me a boy but then I would have had a prostate to worry about or possibly chest cancer. As a child I memorised a text from my very first Bible and it still holds true.

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.  Deut. 33:27 KJV

Meanwhile, I will regain my health and strength and God willing, I will continue my ministry as there is much to do.

Rev Caroline Redfearn © blackpeoplesministries.com 2009

March 2009 – Ovarian and Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

This Posting, reproduced here, was the beginning of my public journey with cancer.

Here in the U.K. March has a special significance to those of us suffering from cancer, affected by cancer or apprehensive of becoming statistically one of the three projected to experience cancer in our life times. Whilst I have not seen any significant media coverage, this month is Ovarian and Prostate Cancer Awareness month and I am touched in a very personal way.

I have a typical West Indian family with the associated legacies of “sugar” and “pressure” – sugar diabetes and hypertension are an unwelcome fact of life. Hidden within this scenario is the spectre of prostate cancer that has affected my father and his brother, my uncle. Both succumbed to this disease in Jamaica and England respectively. The levels of recovery has been markedly different and cannot be explained solely by the ten year difference in age. My uncle is still fit and healthy – a regular exerciser with weekly swimming and was therefore more able to overcome the surgical procedure and radiotherapy. My father is less fortunate, with a life style that did not include the physical exercise that is such a daily feature in his brother’s life. I am aware of the contributing factors to the high incidence of prostate cancer among our people of African descent, however I am also aware of the contribution of our daily lifestyles, dietary habits and mindsets in aiding recovery.

Cancer is no respecter of persons; we do not need to have sedentary lifestyles, be overweight or generally in poor condition. It affects all of us. I am encouraged when I read of terminally ill cancer patients still achieving milestones with outstanding physical performances in sports and on the cycle track. Regardless of the stage and grade of cancer, daily life can still be experienced abundantly, which in these circumstances gives new meaning and impetus to each day, living life as fully as we can.

The present media attention on the life and approaching death of reality TV star Jade Goody has prompted an increase in the requests for cervical cancer screening among young women. She has contributed significantly to the awareness of this particular kind of cancer that can terminate life at such a young age. There is presently no similar screening for ovarian cancer, which is usually detected when it has reached an advanced stage. Statistically only 30-38% survive more than five years after the initial diagnosis. Presently an ovarian cancer screening trial is five years away from completion that may enable a national screening programme in the future.

My formative membership of the Assemblies of God denomination encouraged a deep reverential respect for the healing powers of the Holy Spirit and the powerful application of the “laying on of hands” in spiritual and physical healing. I was present at many healing services where the power of God was manifest. I also witnessed times of ministerial and congregational confusion when physical healing was not visually apparent. Despite the notorious Jamaican expression – Jah lick dem wid diseases – I do not believe that God is so vengeful and the source of our illnesses. The Divine is the basis of our spiritual wellbeing and wholeness. In 2 Corinthians we read about Paul’s discomfort with his daily burden – described metaphorically as a  thorn in his flesh that literally pained him physically or emotionally. Whilst I am not an advocate of Paul’s theology, I feel for him. We do not know the exact nature, cause or symptoms of his affliction – only that it was a daily reminder of his vulnerability and mortality, which understandably, he preferred to be without. It may or may not have be a medical condition, but it was still very real to him. I derive comfort from God’s response to his prayers. In this chapter Paul has just described the experience of a man who had been “caught up in the third heaven” – a significant spiritual experience that equates with a mystical vision where sensing is through the spirit and not the physical. One sees and hears with spiritual eyes and ears in an instance of knowing. He then turns to his own physicality and his limiting disability that prevents pride and keeps him rooted in the harsh realities of his every day life.

And to keep me from being puffed up and too much elated by the exceeding greatness, per-eminence of these revelations, there was given me a thorn, a splinter in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted. Three times I called upon the Lord and besought Him about this and begged that it might depart from me. But He said to me, My grace, my favour and loving-kindness and mercy is enough for you, sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully; for my strength and power are made perfect, fulfilled and completed and show themselves most effective in your weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ, the Messiah, may rest, yes, pitch a tent over and dwell upon me! 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 Amplified Version edited.

Paul understood his affliction within the context of his time as a result of satanic influence. We have the advantage of living in a century where our medical understanding enables us to see our bodily selves in the wider context of the frailty of human life. Our ancestors, as well as bestowing blessings, also impart hereditary factors that can predispose us towards various forms of cancer, regardless of our own particular life styles that may appear healthy. We are all potentially susceptible to this life threatening and life limiting disease.

Love yourself, listen to your body, get tested where there are tests or do not delay in seeing your doctor. Cancers caught in the early stages can be cured. I cannot describe here, the trauma experienced through the diagnosis of advanced or terminal cancer. I cannot convey in this Posting, the incredible reassurance and peacefulness that the Holy Spirit can impart deep within one’s soul on receiving such shocking news. However, I can say unreservedly, for I am not being glib or insensitive, that even in these circumstances, God’s tent is still covering us. We are still nestled in the palm of Her Hand. The very hairs on our heads are still being counted, even if chemotherapy is robbing us of every last strand!

So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm, I will not fear or be terrified. What can man (or disease, my addition) do to me? Heb. 3.6

All of us, who have cancer and are cancer free but who are supporting friends and family with cancer or have lost friends and family to this dreadful disease – take heart. The restorative power of the Holy Spirit as our Counsellor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener and Standby will remain with us for ever (John. 14:16) in this life and our next. God Bless.

Rev Caroline Redfearn © blackpeoplesministries.com 2009

Hello planet Earth!

Please give me time to understand how to blog as this is my very first! Any tips would be appreciated.