‘The Good News is That it is Treatable,’ She Says
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Education Minister Sanita Bradshaw has confirmed that
doctors have discovered breast cancer in its early stages but is optimistic that she will
defeat the disease.
“A couple days ago I was contacted by the doctors and I was told that they found
cancer cells … the good news is that it is treatable because they have found it early,”
said Bradshaw, one of the 30 successful candidates of the Barbados Labour Party
(BLP) that won that the May 24 general elections.
“I want to give you the assurance we took on the whole (now opposition) Democratic
Labour Party and had a landslide and Santia Bradshaw ain’t letting cancer get the
better of her,” she told party supporters over the weekend.
Flanked by Prime Minister Mia Mottley and former government minister dame Billie
Miller, a cancer survivor, Bradshaw, an attorney, said that cancer was “not a death
sentence” and that she was seeking no sympathy.
“I have seen the tears, I have seen the trembling, I have seen the fear, I want you to
understand that I am so positive about this, that I hope that I can give you some of my
strength.
“I believe that between our local team of doctors and our overseas team of doctors I
am in good hands and I know that the prayers that have gone up for me and are going
up for me are going to stand me in good stead,” she said.
Bradshaw said she now had the responsibility “to be the voice of men and women and
families who are going through similar issues to be able to let you know that even as a
servant of the public that we too fall down and be picked back up”.
Dame Billie, a former deputy prime minister reiterated that breast cancer need not be a
death sentence, telling the audience, “you have to have a steady sense of superiority
over it, you absolutely have to.”
Prime Minister Mottley praised Bradshaw for her “extraordinary display of courage” and
supported the minister’s intention to stay at her post.
“Santhia is going to be able to function normally for most of time and on those days
when she can’t the rest of us will step in.
“You Santia shall not walk alone… and I have come to give that commitment to the
people of St Michael South East as well,” Prime Minister Mottley added.
Late last week, the coordinator of the Breast Screening Programme of the Breast
Cancer Society, Dr Shirley Jhagroo, said more women were being diagnosed with the
disease, the number one killer of Barbadian women. – CMC
