Single parent Samantha John, 28, was diagnosed with stage four cancer last year but summoned all her will and battled the dreaded disease because she did not want her six-year-old daughter, Shante, to be motherless. Today, John is completely healed.
“Shante was my inspiration. I did not know how she would manage if I was not there and I wanted to be there when she grew up.
“At my last chemotherapy session this month, blood tests and scans showed I has no cancer cells in my body,” John, a Police Credit Union employee, said.
She is also convinced her prayers were answered and is now a firm believer in faith healing.
“I tell everyone the doctors at the Port-of-Spain hospital who performed the two surgeries on me were God’s angels but I knew it was something greater than medicine.
“The medical world may not want to hear this but medicine without faith will not work.”
Recalling the start of her ordeal, John said about three years ago, she began experiencing constant pelvic pain and felt drawn and tried.
“I was admitted to the Port-of-Spain Hospital and had blood tests, endoscopies and ultra sounds done.
“My blood count dropped very low, to 4.5, which indicated internal bleeding and that I was on my death bed,” she said.
John said the doctors gave her blood transfusions and pain killers but in two months time she would return to the hospital and go through the same procedure again.
“I did that for two years straight with the pain getting more intense.”
John said something did not seem right to her and she spoke to her mother, Sheba, a nurse, about it.
“My mom said all they were doing was stablising me and I needed to find out what was causing the pain and my blood count to drop low.
“I started doing my own research and saw all the red flags of cancer. I never smoked or drank alcohol and don’t eat red meat and was doubtful. When you think you are eating healthy...,” she added.
John visited her private doctor and in two weeks was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. I wondered whether I would live or die. Being a single parent, I worried about what would become of Shante if I passed away.
“Her father is a soldier. We are no longer together and I bring her up on my own without complaining. My mom raised four kids on her own and I told myself I can do it too,” she added.
John said she was adamant that nothing was going to bring her down and she was not going to be depressed since that would only make her more sick.
“I pulled myself together and decided to fight this with all my might. A nurse friend told that made no sense since the cancer was at stage four but I was determined to live for my daughter.
“The pain had become so horrible I could not go to church and my mom and other members would place my picture on a chair, as if I was there, and pray for me. I believed I would be healed and did not doubt,” she said.
John had an appointment for two surgeries, on the colon and liver, and for chemotherapy after. She said four doctors—Dr Thomas, Dr Mohammed, Dr Spence and Dr Joseph—operated on her for eight hours and removed the infected parts of her colon and liver and she began chemotherapy.
“During chemo my hair never fell out and I never felt weak. In fact, I got fatter. I met patients who told me their hair fell out and they felt sick. I went to work everyday during chemo,” she recalled.
John said her managers at the Police Credit Union, Wesley Ann Ramdoo and Bernadette Prescott, were very supportive. “Mrs Ramdoo would tell me, ‘This too shall pass.’”
It did pass. John said the ordeal has brought her closer to her mom, daughter and God and taught her to appreciate things she previously took for granted.
“Like time,” she said.