I Was Diagnosed With Breast Cancer Twice, Here's Why I'm Still Standing

My name is Opal McKnight-Kleinsasser, and I am a twice-diagnosed breast cancer overcomer. Not a survivor, an overcomer. There is a difference, and I want to tell you why.

THE FIRST DIAGNOSIS

When I was first diagnosed in November 2021, I told everybody. I even held a gift-and-go fundraiser. I had made up my mind: no chemo, no radiation, no hormone treatment. I wanted to heal the natural way.

I was unemployed at the time, and the last thing I wanted was for my husband to miss work caring for me. I worked with two doctors, one who recommended a mastectomy, and one naturopathic doctor who said I didn't have to lose my breast. I chose the one who wasn't removing my breast.

On Friday, May 13th, 2022, I had surgery. When the surgeon commented on the date, I told her: "It's going to be a good day, because today you're taking the cancer out."

Everything looked good. Then a few weeks later, sitting at home eating plantain chips, I felt something in the same breast. At my six-week checkup, the surgeon told me cancerous tissue was hiding behind the nipple. She said to take off the breast. I looked her in the face and said no. You have to be ready before you make a decision like that.

CHOOSING A DIFFERENT PATH

I went to work with a naturopath in Jamaica, the herbs, the diet, everything. I dropped 55 pounds simply by changing what I ate. No jerk chicken, no patty, no coco bread, no sugar. I made my own coconut milk, my own curry powder, my own pasta sauce. My home office was filled with recipes because I refused to live with limitations.

Then in July 2022, during a Facebook live prayer service, a prophet said: "There is a woman on this line who has breast cancer. God says to tell you, you're healed." I received it immediately. The pain left. My ultrasound and mammogram came back clear.

Glory be to God.

OCTOBER 2024: THE CANCER CAME BACK

I was living my life, doing my ultrasounds every six months. Then on October 31st, 2024, the results came back suspicious. On December 3rd, I opened an email from Alberta Health Services: Grade 2-3 breast cancer.

My voice left. That was the last call I took that day.

The second time hit me like a ton of bricks. I stopped praying. I stopped sleeping. I would sit in my prayer room in silence and just write. And through those pages, God would speak: "I know what you're going through. I've got you. I'm going to walk you through this so you can walk others through it."

I didn't want to hear that. But I'm beginning to understand it now.

THE DECISION

In January I met with the surgeon. He showed me where the cancer was sitting, right on the line where the first surgeon had cut. The tissue behind the nipple that had been hiding was still there.

I said: "Take off the breast." He said yes. I said: "Take off both."

I am at a place in my life where I am willing to do whatever it takes to live. For God. For myself. For my two little boys who need their mother.

WHY I'M SHARING THIS

In the Black community, in our African and Caribbean communities, we do not talk about cancer. We suffer in silence. By the time people find out, it has often spread.

I want to be the person who walks you through it, because no one walked me through it and I had to find my own way. There is a sister out there, a grandmother, an aunt, someone who needs to hear this. Cancer makes you tired. It strips your energy and your willpower. I have been there twice. But I am still standing.

Walk good, until next time.

Opal McKnight-Kleinsasser