Name Surname: Ethel Vento Zahra

Country: Malta

Nationality: Maltese

Sector: Health

Position: / Dental Surgery/ Lecturer

I was always a very scientifically oriented individual and I knew from a very young age which career I wanted. I graduated with a degree in Dental Surgery at the University of Malta in 2003 and then went on to read for a Master’s programme in Public Health Medicine at the same University, which I completed in 2007.

I work full time at the Dental Public Health Unit where we aim to improve the oral health and quality of life of the Maltese population by reducing the inequalities and disparities that exist in Oral Health. I also work part time as a Lecturer at the Faculty of Dental Surgery in the University of Malta and as a dental surgeon in private practice.

Three years ago I felt a lump in my left breast, which after imaging was deemed to be normal. A few months later, I realized that the same breast was discharging a coloured liquid. A number of tests eventually led to being diagnosed with an extensive area of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS). DCIS is precancerous, which was already bad enough as the treatment in my case required getting surgery - a mastectomy with reconstruction. I was left reeling. I had no idea what to do or think which is totally out of character for me. Life as I had known it changed dramatically.. and there was yet more to come. The pathology results from the tissues removed at surgery, showed that a cancerous area had developed and that I also had some lymph node involvement, with the tumour being fairly aggressive.

I had no family history of breast cancer, and I certainly was not expecting to get breast cancer at 36 years of age. This was a major unexpected shock for me. I had a 3 year old daughter and was planning on having another child. We had just gone through moving our clinic premises to larger newly renovated premises and we had just started settling in to enjoy the fruits of the hard work we had put in. This was certainly not the life I had planned!

You hear about people getting diagnosed with cancer all the time, you see people around you living with it, or passing away because of it, but you have no idea what it is really like, until it happens to you. Although I had a lot of support from my family, friends and colleagues, I had a lot of anxiety and fear about what treatment would actually entail, which side effects I would be getting, and how this was going to affect my life. Would I be able to keep caring for my daughter? Would I get ‘better’? Would the treatment work? What was going to happen if the next test result was not good? Would I be strong enough to live my life as normally as possible? How was I going to cope? Would this thing ever go away forever? Would my husband still find me attractive with all the physical changes associated with this disease? It all seemed very difficult and very much like an impossibly high mountain to climb.

I work full time at the Dental Public Health Unit where we aim to improve the oral health and quality of life of the Maltese population by reducing the inequalities and disparities that exist in Oral Health. I also work part time as a Lecturer at the Faculty of Dental Surgery in the University of Malta and as a dental surgeon in private practice.

Although this is not a great chapter in my life from a health perspective, it has certainly highlighted the beauty of the other chapters in my life; namely my friends, family and colleagues, as the support I had both from a personal and professional perspective was immense.

I am currently in a good place. I am still on medication for a few more years if all goes well, but at least from a cancer perspective, all seems well at the moment.

To help keep my positive outlook I celebrate every day that passes, and I hope to eventually be able to celebrate the passing of a good number of years from this experience. Even though they do not hold particularly good memories, I also “celebrate” my anniversaries – when I got diagnosed, when I had surgery, when I finished chemo and when I finished my infusions. To me they are all giant steps that I had to take to get to where I am today. My life is not perfect, and may not be the life I had planned for myself, but I am very thankful for what I have. I am very appreciative of life in general and I am very conscious that being alive is a blessing which should not be taken for granted.

I am very open about sharing my experience with cancer as I believe that this disease should not be something to hide, but rather a reality that more and more people have to live with every day. This has led people I know to pass on my contacts to people that have just been diagnosed, so as to have a person who has been through the experience to talk to and share the experience with. I gladly do this, as I found it to be of so much help myself, so I definitely believe in paying it forward and providing the same support myself to others.

If you are going through difficult times, for whatever the reason, remember that a tiny step of courage is always a good place to start, and that keeping your attitude positive helps a lot. A favourite quote of mine is 'One step at a time, one foot in front of the other. I’m going to get through this, one way or another'.