Brighter days ahead for breast cancer survivor Albertha

by Christina Smith

New Grounds resident, Albertha Billy-Harry, spent months in a valley of darkness fighting against breast cancer. Six years later, she has emerged into the light, crediting God and family as her pillars of strength.

During the month of October, Billy-Harry, has assumed the role of breast cancer advocate, engaging in public speaking engagements being held by the St Vincent and the Grenadines Medical Association (SVGMA).

She sat for a candid interview with SEARCHLIGHT, alongside her niece Annette Harry, and her five-year-old bubbly granddaughter, Anatasia, and decked out in a pink ‘I am a Survivor’ tee shirt and surrounded by photos of family who supported her since her diagnosis in 2018.

“I was at home relaxing in my bed and I said to myself ‘let me examine my breasts’ and when I did I felt an usual lump inside. I didn’t hesitate, I got a letter to go to the Kingstown Hospital. .. to have a biopsy done,” Billy-Harry recounted.

She said when the doctor recognized that she came in for the follow-up visit alone, be instructed her to call someone to join her.

“After I heard him say that, I wasn’t thinking that it was anything out of the way, but then I felt a little uneasy. I told him my niece is in town with me, so he told me to call her.

… both of us went in and that is when he told me that I have breast cancer.”

Billy-Harry recounted, “ After I heard that, I bend my head and shed a tear because when you hear breast cancer, you know what is behind it”.

She said she was in a daze as she travelled through Kingstown.

“I ended up in the bank and I met a member from our Sans Souci church, Mrs Caesar-Toney, She was the first one that I mentioned to her what happened to me and she gave me words of encouragement, and those words carried me right through until today.”

The next steps after organizing a treatment plan was to break the news to her family and friends, including her son who resides in Canada; her sister in Trinidad; members of her church; and her niece, Lynette, who resides in Barbados who all rallied around her. Two weeks later she was admitted to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital to undergo a mastectomy. Billy-Harry said the surgery, which was followed by chemotherapy in October, 2018 were trying times.

“Some people would say that they don’t want to lose their breasts, but that was not the case. You have to make the best decision for your health. After recovery it was really painful. I met Sister Layne, a nurse, and I told her what happened to me and she said Georgetown Medical is going to offer chemo[therapy]. “
Billy-Harry said while the first dose of the chemotherapy treatment was bearable, the doses which followed were physically and mentally agonizing.

“… the second dose, that throw me down. It was terrible. I vomit, I was weak, I felt like I wasn’t even in this world and I had to go back in three weeks, so by the time I started feeling a little stronger, you had to go back to get another dose. Sometimes I just felt like giving up.”

For the woman who lost her husband three years prior to the cancer diagnosis, and became aware of others who died in treatment, she urged Vincentian women to take their health seriously.

“I was one of the five people that did the chemo[therapy], the first set that had chemo done at Georgetown Medical, and three of them passed away and two are here from 2018. If you examine your breast and you feel anything unusual … don’t hesitate,” she urged.

To make a bad situation worse, the cost of the treatment was putting a financial burden on Billy-Harry. Fortunately her family, churches in the community, and friends raised funds so she could put all her focus on treatment.

Her niece, Annette, praised her aunt’s strength throughout the difficult period.

“I just want to thank God for keeping my aunt. It wasn’t an easy journey, but God has kept her. For her situation I don’t think I have that strength, but she is a very strong woman.”