Masafi Munguyiko, 34, was sitting at a restaurant sipping a soda when she decided to open the envelope with her cancer test results. She was waiting for her husband to finish work so they could go home together in Bugesera, hardly an hour drive from Kigali. The first text she read, ‘Invasive ductal carcinoma’ was too complicated for her to understand, but then thought to check with Google. There couldn’t be sadder news for her, learning it meant she had stage 2 breast cancer. But she heard a voice that she believed was from God, telling her that she shouldn’t worry because He was creating a new testimony for her. “I have passed through many hard times, I have suffered from some really bad diseases, but this was extra. It was harder than all the things I have gone through,” Munguyiko said calmly. “I thought cancer was death. I never thought I would have it because I felt young,” she said. Her story could have been different, had she met the right doctor who paid attention to her concerns when she went for breast cancer testing. Her story goes way back to 2011 when she was still a college student. She was in her room when she listened to a radio show on breast cancer; how to feel if one’s breasts are normal, and when to go to the hospital. When she inspected her breasts, one of them had an unusual lump. She immediately went to Muhima Hospital in Kigali, and it was indeed problematic, according to her doctor. “It was not painful, but it felt unusual. It was huge and would move when I touched it,” Munguyiko said. Tests were run and her breast was operated on, but fortunately, it was only a fibroadenoma- a non-cancerous breast tumour that most often occurs in young women. Things went back to normal right after. She finished school, got married, and had two children, could life have been more perfect? Her career as a high school teacher was also going well, until one evening in 2019 when she was home from work, undressing to unwind from the day. As she randomly touched her breast, she felt something strange. She felt a pea-sized lump, but this time, it felt more solid than the one she had before surgery. She went to a hospital in Kigali whose name she wished to keep anonymous, and the doctor she found there was quite odd, despite several recommendations from people. He did an ultrasound scan on her breast and ruled that she was fine. “You have too many hormones,” he said, and added she should return in six months. But Munguyiko knew it was more than that. She insisted on having more tests done, but the doctor got angry instead. “What is wrong with women? So now you want surgery?” he asked. Munguyiko chose to go home and returned in six months as instructed. But the doctor still insisted there was no cause for alarm and that she should return in six months. This time she told him that she wouldn’t mind surgery after all. The lump was bothering her every time she wore a bra or if anything made contact with her breast. Again, she got scolded instead. “If I was smarter, I would have gone somewhere else. But I trusted him, and so many people commended his work,” Munguyiko said. At this point, the lump had grown very big, and was giving Munguyiko sharp pain. “It felt like needles were being pricked in my breast,” she said. That’s when she decided to go to a different clinic, and they recommended an ultrasound scan and mammography. “Instead of taking the results to the new doctor, I thought it was wise to go back to my other doctor who had been following me up for a year, and show him the results for the past six months. We had an appointment anyway,” Munguyiko said. The doctor still told her to return in six months. But waiting, this time, was impossible. She had intense pain. But pain was not all that she had. She was experiencing strange things too. One time, her then 6 year-old came running saying he “had dreamt that mommy was dead.” But then she would go to pray with other people and some would tell her that God had given them a message that she was spared from death. Blessing in disguise On August 28, 2020, Munguyiko went with her husband to see the doctor. He had agreed with her that if he didn’t help her this time, they would go to another doctor. It was when the Covid-19 measures were still tight, to the extent that even in hospitals, only the patient would enter the doctor’s office. Despite their long drive from home, Munguyiko and her husband were the first to reach the hospital. They picked the first number, and the people who came later, foreigners, were given special treatment and attended to first. The lady was even allowed to enter the office with her husband. Well, it wasn’t so bad, until Munguyiko’s husband was scolded for entering the doctor’s room with her. At this point, they couldn’t take it. It was quite a scene at the hospital that the managers came to see what was going on. But the couple said they would forgive the doctor and not write statements, since he has been following Munguyiko’s case for months. The doctor seemed angry with the couple, so he suggested that Munguyiko go to a certain nurse to have her ultrasound scan. “I intend to properly thank the nurse who did the scan. I think he was an angel sent by God for me to still be alive,” Munguyiko added. When the nurse did the scan, he was shocked that Munguyiko was aware of her condition, and surprised too that the doctor did not run other tests for her, because of how big the mass was. He then recommended her to take the biopsy. When she took her test results to the doctor, he looked somewhat bothered, and told her that whatever results she’ll get from the biopsy, she should take them to Kanombe Military Hospital- where the cancer centre is located. On September 3 2020, that’s when she went to pick her biopsy results. It was a very hot day, and she was tired. Key moments in her healing journey Munguyiko’s husband quickly understood that she needed urgent medical attention, and so he was always there for her. An example is when she started losing her hair because of chemotherapy, a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in your body. She was getting side effects, such as vomiting, fatigue, mouth sores and lack of appetite. She also started losing her hair on her 12th day of getting chemotherapy. She pulled it gently, and it came out. “It was so easy to come out. I then decided to go for a cut,” Munguyiko said. Upon her return from the barbershop, her husband said he had a surprise for her. “He told me to close my eyes, and when I opened them, he was bald. His head was shiny, and he said to me that he intended to keep it that way until my hair grew again,” Munguyiko said. I couldn’t hold back my tears when she narrated the story. And when her sons learnt about her cancer, their response was emotional. ”We thought they should know I was sick, so we called them to our room and told them. When I removed my head wrap to show them my hair was gone, they burst into tears. They said I looked like a monster. But the elder brother tapped my shoulder and told me ‘maman, ça va aller’ (mom, it will be okay),” Munguyiko shared. On her last day of chemotherapy, her husband threw a surprise party for her, with cake and flowers. Munguyiko explained to The New Times that her husband played a key role in giving her hope to get better. By the time we had this interview; Munguyiko had just received her test results confirming she was cancer free, after a year. She gives special thanks to her husband, Erick Shaba, her doctor, Achille Manirakiza, whom she describes as professional and kind, and the government of Rwanda, for having set up the Cancer Centre that saved her from traveling abroad for treatment. Munguyiko also appreciates her friends and family who prayed for her, visited and called her often; but most importantly, God who healed her. She has now made it her mission to teach women and girls to be aware of their cancer status, to inspect their breasts and rush to the hospital in case they feel something unusual.
