Cancer survivor supports others fighting the disease

When Jamaica-born Letna Allen-Rowe was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in 2011, her greatest fear was not losing a breast, but leaving her only daughter behind.

“I said, ‘Lord, what is going to happen to her? At her age, what’s going to happen?’” she recalled. Fifteen years later, the Canada-based survivor, who once feared for her life, is helping others confront the disease through her Ms Letna Healing Hope Foundation, which has raised more than CAN$50,000 (approximately J$5.6 million) for cancer-related initiatives.

Allen-Rowe’s ordeal began when her family doctor insisted that she undergo a mammogram, despite her belief that another screening was unnecessary.

“At the time, I had done my mammogram two years ago, and I don’t need to do it until next year,” she recalled. But her doctor was adamant.

“My doctor said ‘Girl you and I are the same age. I did my mammogram yesterday. Please go and do yours.’”

What she expected to be a routine examination became increasingly worrying as technicians conducted additional scans and ultrasounds. Her doctor subsequently informed her that a lump had been detected in her right breast. Allen-Rowe was later asked to attend an appointment with a trusted relative or friend. Her daughter accompanied her.

“When I heard the word cancer, I remembered my mom. I dropped into a hole. My entire head started to spin, and the tears started to flush out of my eyes,” she recounted.

Her daughter also broke down but reassured her that she would not face the ordeal alone.

“She said, ‘Mommy, we will get through this. I will be with you every day to the end.’”

The diagnosis was especially frightening for Allen-Rowe, whose mother had battled ovarian cancer and whose sister and cousin had also faced the disease.

Following a mastectomy, she struggled to come to terms with her changed body and uncertain future.

“I said, ‘God, I didn’t want to ask you this question because I know I am a child of God. You said do not fear, but I am afraid,’” she recalled. She even questioned why she had been diagnosed when she had six sisters.

“‘Why me, God? I have five other sisters, plus one on my father’s side. Why you never chose one of them?’” she recalled questioning God.

But her ordeal intensified when her oncologist advised against chemotherapy because of concerns about her blood condition.

“He looked me in the eye and said, ‘If I give you chemotherapy, you will not last six months,’” she recalled. Seeking reassurance, she consulted another oncologist, who she said expressed similar concerns.

“That sank me to the ground,” Allen-Rowe said.

She spent much of 2012 rebuilding her emotional strength, finding comfort in a women’s cancer support group where survivors shared their experiences.

“At one end, you’re doing the medication, and the second you’re saying, ‘God, am I going to die?’ So you’re looking at death and you’re looking at hope.”

Those encounters helped inspire her fundraising and advocacy work, which began in 2013. Her commitment to Jamaica deepened after encountering women who, she said, had waited overnight for free mammograms because they could not afford screening. Through fundraising, seminars and patient support activities, her foundation has contributed to cancer-related initiatives benefiting organisations including the Jamaica Cancer Society, Scarborough Health Network and TAIBU Community Health Centre.

Now preparing for the foundation’s 10th annual Healing Hope Fundraising Brunch on October 25 in Scarborough, Canada, Allen-Rowe remains committed to encouraging patients facing the uncertainty she once knew.

“Healing Hope is doing what it is doing, and it makes me happy every year I give back,” she said.