Ronel reflects on surviving two unrelated cancers

Besides fatigue, which she put down to parenting her three daughters while running a busy medical practice, 56-year old GP, Dr Ronel Smit, experienced no warning symptoms prior to the CML diagnosis.

Her initial blood cancer, discovered via a routine annual blood test, was treated with Gleevec, a drug that mends the cancer-causing chromosome defect. In March 2010, the treatment put her into sustainable remission after 18 months. However, she had to continue taking it to keep the disease at bay, with difficult symptoms like headaches and body pain.

Financial peace of mind for Ronel

Ronel had to put her practice on hold and stopped her twice-a-year locum visits to Ireland where she’d spend two months at a time working, building contacts and boosting her retirement income. Ronel’s Discovery Life policy paid her out R1 000 000 from her Capital Disability Benefit and an additional R100 000 from her Severe Illness Benefit for her blood cancer. This helped her to mitigate her major loss of income and maintain her lifestyle while on treatment.

Mammogram finds another cancer

Once in a position to return to her work, Ronel continued to see patients at her practice. With the support of her husband Paul, a life coach and corporate relationships consultant, she later changed her overseas work destination to the city of Baku in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Here she worked at the SOS International clinic in rotations of six weeks on and six weeks off, tending to an expat community employed by various major gas and oil companies.

With a diploma in obstetrics and gynaecology, Ronel has tailored her practice towards women and is very aware of the benefits of routine check-ups for breast and other cancers. So in November 2017, just one week before she was due to once again fly out to Baku, she went for a routine mammogram.

“From age 41, I had developed small fluid-filled cysts in my breasts, but they went away as I got older, although I continued with annual check-ups. I had no lumps, but I’d been doing routine mammograms for the past 15 years. When the radiologist saw increased calcifications in one of my breasts, he ordered a biopsy as a precaution. The next day I was told that I had intra-ductal carcinoma and needed immediate surgery,” says Ronel.

Second diagnosis a hammer-blow

“This was a bigger shock to me than the first cancer. I was really furious and even doubted God cared about me. My husband was also angry. I just had this really well-paid job in Baku and now he had to work harder to keep the retirement wheels turning. It felt like a Hiroshima or a being in a tumble-drier on a rollercoaster,” she says. Her husband bought her a book entitled, “Disappointment with God,” which she says helped her, as a Christian, to make sense of what she felt was the random nature of her two cancers.

Ronel had elected to include a Minimum Protected Fund on her Life Plan with Discovery – this meant that even though she’d claimed against her Life Plan already, she still had sufficient funds to support her lifestyle while she was in treatment for her breast cancer.

Champagne on order

“A CT scan of my abdomen and thorax in early August 2018 came up totally clear, exactly a month after my last chemo session. I’ve suffered a bit with chemo side effects like swelling in my feet and lower legs and my nails peeling off, but my daughter has been treating the latter with creams and special dressings. My liver, lungs and heart showed up completely normal, just my liver enzymes were a bit elevated, but that’ll fade as time goes on,” she says excitedly. Ronel is convinced she’ll now stay clear for five years, the first beacon toward full remission.

In September 2018 she underwent a full hysterectomy – a precaution as the chemotherapy has rendered her ovaries susceptible to cancer. “I recovered fully from that surgery. From now on I go for scans and tests every six months,” adds the 58-year old.

Ronel’s advice to other cancer survivors?

• You’re entitled to be sad or angry and have all those emotions. Don’t suppress them.
• Get support. I have a huge prayer group that envelopes me in a cocoon of prayer.
• Do some research, ask your oncologist anything.
• Live one day at a time, make the best of it.
• Be kind.
• Eat healthily, exercise when you can.
• The famous neurologist, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Dr Viktor Frankl once said the only thing they cannot take away from you is your attitude! I live by that.

“I’ve been shaped by these cancers. I think I’m even kinder to people than before because everyone is fighting some kind of battle, and I’m more understanding and patient,” Ronel concludes.

Discovery Life Limited. Registration number 1966/003901/06, is a registered long-term insurer, and an authorised financial services and registered credit provider, NCR Registration number NCRCP3555. Product rules, terms and conditions apply. This article is meant only as information and should not be taken as financial advice. For tailored financial advice, please contact your financial adviser.