Ilma Egan

Survivor

My name is Ilma and I am 41 years old. I have two girls and a husband, whom I married 2 years ago. I am a survivor from breast cancer stage 3 triple negative. It was 5 years ago when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was in shock because I was a single mom with 2 little girls at that time. I did the mastectomy to my left breast, and took out my limp nodes from left armpit, and continued with a tummy tuck to move the tissue to my left breast on reconstruction breast. Praise God my nipple and skin were clean from cancer allowing the doctor to keep it. I went through 26 rounds of chemotherapy, which I only remembered the first 6 cycles were doxorubicin (I literally flew on my body for 72 hours each round), and 30 days in a row of radiation. I carried it everywhere on a sling-like black bag. I finally finished all my treatment at Singapore General Hospital and National Cancer Center Singapore on 2014. All of my pain and struggle were paid off. In 2016, I met my husband through a friend here (at that time I lived in Jakarta, Indonesia). I told him everything about myself, including my ‘fake’ left breast, a long scar on my hip from the tummy tuck, a scar of my left armpit, and of course my 2 girls that I cannot live without. He accepted and loves all 3 of us unconditionally and brought us here in 2017 after we received our permanent residence card. I praise God for my family (mom and brother) who never end their support to me and, of course, my friends. They did not feel embarrassed of their bald friend 🙂