ATTORNEY Shaniel May Brown remembers well the day, nine years ago, when she learnt she had cancer.

“I was in my last year at the Faculty of Law and I found out exactly three or four days before my first exam,” she told guests attending CIBC Caribbean’s Walk For The Cure launch on Tuesday, September 17, 2024 at Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St Andrew.

“I remember getting the call from my doctor and he was, ‘Well, the test results came back and I want you to come in’ and I go ‘Yeah, we know what it is’. Nobody asks you to come in if they didn’t find something you need to sit down and hear,” said May Brown who shared that she was 21 years old at the time.

“I was in the middle of studying and I put down the books and called my mother and said, ‘I got the results, meet me there’,” the young attorney related.

“For the first five minutes I didn’t hear anything he said until he said, ‘You have cancer. I’m going to sign up a slip so you can be exempted from your exams.’ And in the moment, I don’t think I processed it, but I remember responding to him saying, ‘No, you’re not, I’m going to do my exams and if I can do my surgery after, that’s the plan’,” she told the audience who listened in awe.

“I walked out of the office and I sat in the car. I’m a strong believer in timing, whether you are spiritual or not, timing is something that this world rotates on and I sat in the car and I looked at myself and I realised that when I got dressed to go to the doctor I had on my Relay for Life cancer society shirt from the year before,” she said.

“I’m an alumni of Campion College, so Relay for Life is a staple — every single year we are there. When I looked down and I realised that for all these years I drew a strong connection to being a part of the movement, for all these years I’ve prepared myself to be a part of a movement I needed to be a part of,” May Brown said.

“So I did my exams, completed my last exam on Thursday evening, went out and had my last meal because, naturally, you can’t eat 24 hours before the surgery, and I went into the surgery, came out and thought, ‘Wow, this was the hardest part, now I can eat’,” she said.

May Brown, however, admitted that she had not yet encountered her most difficult test.

“I want to say, in my almost 30 years of life, recovery from my cancer surgery has been the hardest thing in life. I’m an attorney, I’m a wife, I’m a mother, it is worse than labour. I definitely hit rock bottom, I was depressed, I couldn’t do anything,” she recalled.

“I had to sleep upright for over a month, it was rough, but I had to find the resilience. And to focus on that resilience, I would have to find the strength — whether from myself or the people around me who supported me. I had to be courageous to survive this, but guess what? I came out of that surgery; some people don’t get to go into surgery,” she said.

“So the fact that I opened my eyes and the doctor said, ‘You know where you are?’ and you could respond, I had to find the courage to be strong for those who weren’t able to do that. I had to find the hope that I was going to be able to fulfil my dream of being an attorney-at-law, find the hope to do things I want to do outside of law, find the hope to know that everyday from now on, even though I wasn’t taking life for granted before, but now I’m going to be more purposeful than ever before,” she told the audience.

The experience, she said, helped her to develop strength and courage, so much so that after the surgery she participated in Relay for Life, the annual fund-raiser staged by Jamaica Cancer Society.

“It’s not easy, it’s a journey, it never ends. It is something that you always have to wake up with and some days you immediately remember and some days you are reminded by the scars that you have from surgery or something happened and you have to do screening or it could just be something else, you just never know,” May Brown shared.

Pointing to the fact that Walk for The Cure is in its 13th year, May Brown said it was a coincidence that the date that she underwent surgery was Friday, May 13.

“For those of you who are superstitious… you’re thinking why would you pick such a date, but that was the date that I could do it… so being here on the 13th anniversary for CIBC [is] definitely a connection,” she said, adding that for her, 13 is a lucky number.

“I’m a better person today for that cancer diagnosis, for the support system I had after and continue to have,” she said.

“I describe my life now as living with purpose. I focus on the purpose I want to fulfil for Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the world as a wife, an attorney-at-law and a mother. I focus on the resilience to get me through those days when I’m genuinely exhausted. I celebrate my 30th birthday in a few [days] and looking back, I’m grateful and thankful for the 20s that I’ve lived as a cancer survivor; I’m thankful for the 20s that I lived as a person,” she said.

“I continue to make it through days and years, not just as a survivor but as a human being, so even though the focus here is on the cause for cancer, resilience is what everyone should have, whether as a fighter, survivor, or a supporter. The journey we’ve embarked upon is not about transforming our pain into purpose only, or our struggle into strength. We walk today to celebrate not just how far we’ve come but to inspire others to keep moving forward,” added May Brown.

“I’m here to inspire others, to remind them they’re not here doing it alone, whether you are a survivor or supporter — because it’s equally as hard for the supporters,” she said as she encouraged participation in Walk for the Cure, scheduled for this morning at Hope Botanical Gardens in St Andrew.

“Let us walk today with pride and joy, let us honour our journey by celebrating the victories, both big and small, and by continuing to love and support one another. Our resilience is a testament to the power within each of us and to the incredible community that surrounds us.

“As we move forward, let us carry the message of strength, courage and hope to every corner of our beautiful Caribbean. Let us show the world that we are not defined by our battles but our unwavering resolve to live fully and joyfully and together we will continue to inspire and uplift, shining our light on the incredible strength that lies within us all, together. We are Caribbean strong and together we are walking for resilience. So find that strength, stay courageous and keep re-energising the hope,” May Brown said.

Walk for the Cure organisers have said that this year’s event, being held under the theme ‘Caribbean Strong: Walking for Resilience’, is expected to be the largest yet and aims to raise funds for cancer awareness, prevention, and treatment throughout the region.

Breast Cancer Awareness month is being observed in October under the theme ‘No one should face breast cancer alone.’