After beating breast cancer twice, a 26-year old woman revealed what it felt like to be told that she had terminal breast cancer.
Geneva Wilson from New Zealand was 24 years old at the time she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, a rare, aggressive type of the disease.
Although she was shocked, she stated that it was a blessing to have been diagnosed in stage one. She still had options.
Geneva Wilson, 26 years old from New Zealand, is getting married. However she is also planning to have her own funeral in order not to put her family under too much stress after her death from cancer.
Geneva is pictured below before getting cancer. She was happy and healthy as a young girl, but at the age of 24, she was diagnosed in triple-negative breast Cancer.
Geneva was diagnosed with stage 3 in her second attempt. Doctors now advise that she only has a few weeks or months to live.
Geneva stated to Femail, “Doctors tell me to make the most of what time I’m leaving,”
Her lungs have been affected by cancer, and it is now difficult for her to inhale. This has forced her body into further operations.
“They removed my lump, as well as a small piece of my lung. However, my body still needs to recover from chemotherapy that it hasn’t handled well,” she stated.
Geneva, who is set to be married soon to her fiancé James, is tired and emotionally overwhelmed as she also plans her own funeral to save her family the stress.
The cancer was detected by routine scans, the same day that New Zealand was placed under lockdown.
“I received a text from my scan technician to inform me that I would need to be seen the following day. My stomach was sore and I felt really depressed,” she stated.
After the incident, the young woman was told by her father to “live while she can.”
Geneva is in love and has been engaged to James for the past several months.
“I was scared, but I knew it could not be good. Usually it takes several weeks before the scans come back.”
When she discovered a lump in her breast cancer, the young lady was studying psychology. She decided to stop all activities and seek treatment.
Geneva didn’t want to celebrate the fact that she had entered remission for the first time.
She said, “I felt scared and like something was wrong inside of me.”
It was true – she had gone through radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and a double mastectomy. But the cancer returned this time in her lymphoid nodes.
Geneva said she would fight despite the grim outlook because she wanted to be there for her family and friends as much as possible.
She fought back and Geneva felt that she was finally able to look forward towards a cancer-free future.
She said that she believed that chemotherapy was finished when the last round was completed. Doctors told her there was always a chance it would come back.
Geneva who has been struggling to speak and breathe for a while, is trying to educate other women about the warning signs she’s seeing and how important it is to have regular health checks.
Geneva stated that she can’t even remember what her life was like before the cancer diagnosis and said that whenever she sees a glimpse at normality, it tears her world apart.
“I was sitting down on the couch and it felt just like what they said it would – a heavy lump that won’t move,” she stated.
Elle also supports the inclusion of immunotherapy in New Zealand’s normalised treatment.
“If I had been in Australia, or the US at the time of my first diagnosis, it would have been standard treatment.
She said, “Now, I need to raise $100,000, but it is likely that I’m too late to make it work.”
Geneva (pictured with James) now applies the skills she gained in her psychology degree for helping herself and her family cope with every stage of her terminally ill cancer diagnosis
“Who knows, if that was all I had at my disposal then what would it look like in the future?”
Geneva now uses the skills she learned in her psychology degree to help herself and her loved ones cope with each stage of her terminal cancer diagnosis, and process the emotional trauma.
She said, “At that point, the money raised to me will be going towards funeral expenses and not treatment.”
I also enjoyed a fast-paced romance. Soon, I will marry the love of my lives, which will reduce my sick benefits.
“So, I will use my money to survive for as long as possible.”
To donate to Geneva you can head to her Give A Little page.