Twenty-seven. It's the age when Antonyche Cooper thought she'd be winding down her "clubbing" days and really focusing on settling down. She dreamed of finally completing her banking and finance degree. It's an age she figured she'd at least be leaving home and looking forward to meeting "Mr. Right," getting married and starting a family of her own. It's an age when she thought her years of making good financial and personal decisions would pay off, and her independence would truly begin. It's not an age where she thought she would be confronted with a disease that could threaten her life.
But it was nine months ago, on March 31 at the age of 27, that the vibrant young lady was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer -- the same disease that stole her mother, Debbie Cooper, from her 22 years ago -- when Antonyche was just five years old.
It all began with a self breast exam which Antonyche performed regularly because she had naturally lumpy breasts, and because her mother had died from the disease. Over the years she had gotten a few scares, but the lumps turned out to be nothing. In early January, a new growth she noticed was different than any other lump she'd had before. Antonyche could not dismiss it.
"Even before I went to the doctor I knew something was wrong," she said. "As usual, I was a little alarmed, but I still waited until the end of January to see a doctor. He initially said that there was definitely something in the breast and I might want to do surgery to check it out, but there wasn't anything to be concerned about as far as he was concerned. So I waited almost two months before I went away to do the surgery in the United States."
By that time the lump which had started off small and firm had grown significantly and was hard and unyielding. That development terrified Cooper who knew without a doubt that something was amiss. Her other lumps had always remained the same size, were soft and shifted when touched.
It was March 25 when she received a second opinion. Three days later she had a biopsy done in Fort Lauderdale. On March 31 she was told the lump was cancerous.
Being told she had cancer she said was a "difficult thing to swallow".
"To me, it wasn't about the disease itself because that didn't sink in for me as yet. It was the immediate memories of remembering how I watched my mother die from cancer that overwhelmed me," says Cooper. "I was five-years-old when she died and the experience was one that took most of my life to come to terms with. It was because of that I had always tried to be conscious of what was happening to my body and not take 'no' or 'don't worry' for an answer when it came to my health. When the news finally really hit me that the same thing that had happened to her could happen to me, I was absolutely terrified."
But Cooper was determined that her mother's fate would not be her reality as well. She also took comfort in the fact that the medication and options available for treatment were far more aggressive than they were in her mother's time.
"I felt relieved knowing that I would be okay. I wasn't as afraid of the road I would have to walk," she says.
Even in the face of having to do chemotherapy treatments and eventually making the difficult decision to do a double mastectomy to save her life, Cooper says physically, the feeling that she had cancer did not sink in until she started losing her hair.
"Nothing made my cancer as real to me as the morning I woke up with some of my hair dropping out. I never really saw myself as sick until that moment. I was going through chemo, biopsies, MRIs, ultrasound and doing the check-ups and my hair was still there. One morning I woke up and my head felt so heavy, it was so sore and as I scratched and rubbed, my hair was coming out in chunks, that was the most devastating moment," she says.
She turned to her family for comfort -- her aunt, Sundae Cooper, whom she'd lived with since her mother died, and her uncle Kevin Cooper who shaved her head for her. As her illness became reality to her, she forced herself to look in the mirror at that point with a cleanly shaved head and she says she just cried. But with the support of her family she says was able to make it through.
Her diagnosis and fight she says took its toll on her brother, Antoine Cooper, who was eight years old when their mother died. She says he did not cope well.
"It was hard enough seeing our mother die young. He never really vented or got over that experience, so I can understand how hard it is for him to see me go through the same thing. Although he doesn't stick around too long when he does come to see me, he does show he still cares. Many days during the summer I would wake up to find a pile of guineps in my bed next to me. I think it was his way of saying 'I'm still here'."
When the chemotherapy treatments got more intense and aggressive and she eventually had to take time off from her job, she discovered how wonderful the people in her life outside of her family were. Once her co-workers learned of her battle, they rallied to raise funds to assist with her medical expenses.
"I wasn't expecting such a strong support system all around me to develop," says Cooper. "It is so amazing and I am so happy for everyone who has been here helping me."
She says her fight with cancer has shown her the goodness of people at a new level.
She has gone through good and bad days, but since her diagnosis, she says she learned quickly to make the best of everything that is happening from day-to-day. On her bad days she says she does her best to not stay down and moves around and goes out. She purchased a Nicki Minaj wig to wear whenever she's out and about. She says everyone thinks she's being fashionable, but the wig she says lifts her spirits.
From the day she first felt the lump to her diagnosis, Cooper says she's learned to listen to her instincts and not rest on the assurance of one medical practitioner. And that sometimes a second and third opinion is needed until you feel absolutely comfortable with what you hear. She also hopes that more physicians will see the need to let even younger women do mammograms so they don't miss something in a self-test and realize something is wrong too late.
"My doctors refused to let me do mammograms because I was young. I always had to do an ultrasound or MRI instead. I never saw the reason why they would say 'no'. I wasn't being paranoid since my mother died at 32 from cancer and I just wanted to ensure I was alright. I hope more physicians take these kinds of requests seriously and not just reserve it for older ladies or those with a strong family history. If a young lady is concerned and wants to do it I don't see why she shouldn't."
Bahamian health officials currently use the American Cancer Society's screening recommendations which call for screening at age 40.
Recent results from a groundbreaking breast cancer study involving Bahamian women show that 25 percent of their relatives who participated in genetic testing had been found to have a genetic mutation. This basically means that they are at a high risk of developing breast cancer, according to Dr. Judith Hurley, a breast cancer specialist at the University of Miami School of Medicine, who spoke with The Nassau Guardian.
Through other phases of the study, which came out in October, researchers say it quickly became obvious that abnormal genes were causing Bahamian women to develop breast cancer at much younger ages than their American counterparts.
According to health statistics, 34 percent of Bahamian women diagnosed with brest cancer are 44 or younger. This compares to 12 percent of American women under 44.
What researchers also found startling was that 44.6 percent of those Bahamian women diagnosed have late stage breast cancer compared to 12 percent of American women.
The average age of women with breast cancer in The Bahamas is 42 while the average age in the United States is 62.
Breast cancer is the sixth leading cause of death of Bahamian women, according to health officials.
Cooper also advises young women not to take their health for granted as more of them like her are being diagnosed below the age of 30. And she hopes that those who are diagnosed do not take the "vain route".
"It's sad to lose your breasts and you really don't want things to be different but you have to do what is right. If you are diagnosed, it is best to just take both breasts off. Reconstructive surgery is a lot easier if the surgeons have a clean slate, and the chances of finding out the cancer returned is eliminated. I am new to this and I am still learning but I do know one thing, I love my life more than my breasts. I never want to go through this again."
Cooper isn't in the "clear" yet. She is still undergoing treatments, but she is more optimistic than ever that cancer can be beat once you believe in God and have an unbreakable support system like she has been afforded. She wishes more young women can be as lucky and remember that life does not end with cancer. She says she now sees more than before, that it can be an eye-opening experience and the perfect beginning to a new life.

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