Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter
Left: Nickoy, a young cancer survivor plays with a friend at the Jamaica Cancer Society's Relay for Life, held at the Police Officers' Club on Hope Road, from June 10 -11. Right: Roshane Rowe, a 14-year-old cancer survivor is all smiles at the Jamaica Cancer Society's Relay for Life, held at the Police Officers' Club on Hope Road, from June 10-11. Roshane was diagnosed with leukaemia at 11 years old. - ANDREW SMITH/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
TWO-YEAR-OLD NICKOY Gillings is overly blessed with energy. Not even the big yellow cancer survivor T-shirt that he wore over his small white shirt and a pair of blue jeans pants could contain him. He runs about the Police Officers' Club hugging and mingling with people who gathered to show solidarity with fellow cancer survivors.
Nickoy is too young to understand why the Jamaica Cancer Society was staging its fourth annual Relay for Life. He is also too young to know the dangers associated with cancer and the bitter fight that is on to confine the deadly disease to the realms of history.
Roshaine Rowe, 14, though is able to relate to the Jamaica Cancer Society's efforts. Along with Nickoy, he numbers among the more than 120 cancer survivors at Relay for Life on Saturday.
Relay for Life, a major fund-raiser, is an overnight event where people spend up to 24 hours walking around a track that is dapperly marked out with hundreds of candles, each representing a person who has died from the disease or a cancer survivor. Funds raised from the venture are used to educate the public on the virtues of early detection.
WHEN DOES CANCER OCCUR?
Cancer occurs whenever there is abnormally division of body cells. No one can claim immunity from the disease. At six months old, Nickoy's mother, Nicole Higgins, detected a lump in his side that was causing him discomfort. At first, she said, the doctors thought Nickoy was suffering from sickle cell but an ultrasound revealed cancer.
"It was very scary. I was very frightened, I didn't know what to do," said the 33-year-old Alexandria, St. Ann resident.
Nickoy did one year's chemotherapy, during which he lost his hair twice. Today though, he has to go the barber to get his hair cut. He is off that treatment now and his mother says she is awaiting results of a scan to see how much he has recovered. And although the results are not yet in, Ms. Higgins can't wait to see him recover fully and become a doctor.
"I want to see him help others like the way doctors help him," she remarked.
Roshaine too has big dreams. He wants to be a soldier but for now he has bought into his mother's advice and is considering a career in accounting. Because of Roshaine's illness, it is difficult for him to endure the rigours of army life.
A third form student at Tarrant High School, Roshaine was diagnosed with leukaemia at age 11. Leukaemia, which is a common type of cancer, occurs whenever there is abnormal division in blood cells. It adversely affects the production of white blood cells, which are the body's defence against germs.
CHANGE IN SKIN COMPLEXION
Roshaine's mother, Carmetta Williams, said she had realised that his skin complexion was getting pale and his eyes looked like he had jaundice. Medical examinations showed that the elder of her two sons had cancer.
"It was very shocking to me. I did not know how to take the news. Even when he was going though treatment I saw death all over him. But I never gave up. We prayed and asked for help and with the good doctors he came through," Williams gleamed.
But despite the broad smile she wore about her face Ms. Williams is a troubled mother - yet to fully digest bad news received last week. Doctors said lumps are reappearing in Roshaine's glands, but they are holding on to the hope that he won't have to do more than the three years of chemotherapy he has undergone. If their worse fear is realised, Roshaine will have to start chemotherapy all over again. And if that round of treatment does not work, his hopes of recovery will then rest in a bone marrow transplant surgery, something doctors say patients have a 50 per cent chance of surviving.
"Cancer is something I would not wish for my worst enemy," said Ms. Williams. And as one survivor puts it, "It is a never ending story; it will continue but we have to fight hard to defeat it and we can."
Roshaine has already conquered the enemy in his head. While conceding that the battle is a fierce one, he said "It makes no sense in giving up."
"I try to keep the faith at all times. I don't worry and I never fret. These is no use in stressing by worrying if I am going to die or things like that.
That is why I like events like these where I can mingle with the other people. Living with cancer is very hard but it is the love and support of everyone that keeps me through," said Roshaine, who like Nickoy, is a full on energy.
