The idea is to instill awareness, not fear about breast cancer: Tahira Kashyap
Recently, Tahira Kashyap was invited as a guest speaker for a panel discussion on breast cancer awareness.
Recently, Tahira Kashyap was invited as a guest speaker for a panel discussion on breast cancer awareness. Titled Jivisha, it was organized by the NGO Gulmohar Maitri. And while she was detected with breast cancer last year, Tahira has taken it upon herself to spend as much awareness about the condition as she can.
Talking about the same, Tahira, who was lauded for sharing her inspirational story on her social media account, says she wasn’t always going to be open about her struggle.
“It is important to have an inspiration because then, you can become an inspiration for others. I remember a year back, I had read Sonali Bendre’s post where she had shared what she was going through. I was like ‘Wow, this woman is so brave”. Cut to, me being diagnosed with cancer. I had decided that I wouldn’t share my struggle because it was breast cancer and there was mastectomy and reconstruction involved, too. I had decided to keep it away from the world for the longest time, but a few things like conversation with doctors, frequent trips to the hospital and interacting with several patients, made me decide that I wanted to talk about this and raise awareness. It was a wakeup call for me because there is nothing more important than life. The idea is to instill awareness, not fear,” she says.
While she was battling cancer, Tahira says that self-love was a quality she realised was important to heal and recover.
“I was a different person a couple of years back. Today, I am happy and confident, and I wanted to share it with others. You need to have self-love. I met a lot of women who faced so many problems which I didn’t even face. I never had the problem of no family support and a family member making me feel guilty. I was shocked to find that it’s a common thing among cancer patients to feel guilty for having brought this disease upon themselves. Not having enough support system and a congenial environment to survive and recover is very difficult, too,” she says.
