HOW CERVICAL CANCER CHANGED MY LIFE
by
Katrina Welch
January 2014 started like any other year for Kimberley Bourne. She was full of hope, and expectations for a good year ahead and as she prepared to embark upon the New Year, she made a list of her goals which included completing routine health checks such as a dental visit and a Pap smear exam. However, what the mother of one did not anticipate, is that her results for this standard gynaecological procedure would not be favourable.
“The first result for my pap smear was irregular and so was the second one,” Kimberley explained, “So, I was referred to the Barbados Family Planning Association and the doctor there did a colposcopy.”
It was this third test which confirmed her diagnosis of cervical cancer. This devastating news was not the note on which she expected her new year to begin and she admitted that the initial diagnosis was the hardest part of her cancer journey.
She was then referred to Dr Vikash Chatrani, oncologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital who graded her cancer and devised a plan for treatment. This plan required her to undergo a radical hysterectomy which would involve the removal of the top of her vagina, uterus, cervix and pelvic lymph nodes. However, she was able to retain her ovaries.
“Dr Chatrani feared that the cancer would spread to my lymph nodes and as we discussed the options he made it clear to me that the hysterectomy meant no more children,” she said. For most women in their early 30s, that would be a devastating revelation, but she took it in stride and said that the sacrifice was an easy decision for her, because not having the surgery could have had fatal consequences for her life, if she developed complications.
While trying to cope with the difficult health challenge, Kimberley still sought to fulfil her parental duties to her daughter Kiara, who was in Class 3 at the time. This meant that she was in the process of preparing for the Barbados Secondary Schools Entrance Examination the following year.
“My daughter was young but I explained to her that everything would be okay. I kept reassuring her because I did not want to distract her so I tried to keep her schedule as regular as possible. Kiara at that time was legit my driving force. She kept my head above water most days. Everyday was not a good day but me trying to convince her helped to convince myself,” she said.
In May 2014, as Kimberley prepared to celebrate her 32nd birthday, she was also preparing to undergo the radical hysterectomy. She described her support system as small but solid. “I had a big party that year just in case things didn’t go well and most people didn’t know until I made the announcement to my close circle who attended the birthday party,” she said.
The following week she was admitted to the hospital for the surgery and noted that, “By the time I had the surgery I had gotten past the emotional part of the cancer diagnosis. Dr Chatrani broke it down for me and was reassuring that the next steps would take care of everything. The surgery was successful but the recovery was very painful, especially the initial pain in the weeks immediately after. I could not do any strenuous activities and I couldn’t move around much.”
Since her surgery she was not required to have any further treatments but every six months since then she had attended routine check-ups and she is required to take supplements to keep her hormones balanced. After surviving the potentially fatal disease, the document control administrator by profession, then made another drastic change to her life.
Even though she now hosts a small boot camp to help others pursue and maintain a lifestyle of fitness, she was not always physically fit. Recognising that obesity was potentially one of the triggers of her condition, Kimberley decided that it was time to make a change.
“That is how I embarked on a life of wellness and fitness. It was a full 180. My eating habits had to change and I had to increase my activity,” she said. “Up until that time I wasn’t doing much in terms of exercising but I became more conscious of the little things such as what I was eating and how I was eating, and I started making an effort to move by doing a little stuff on my own.”
In 2017, she took another stride in her wellness journey and joined Apollo Fitness Centre under the guidance of Personal Trainer Corey Springer. Embarking on this boot camp was truly a turning point. “That’s when I started to get serious about changing my body and how I looked. Surgery left me with a lot of scarred tissue in my lower abdomen. I will never have a completely flat stomach because of how the surgeries were done but I plug in mentally, tell myself I have to do this for me and push through,” she said.
Then, in 2020 she decided to conduct additional training sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays outside of her regular boot camp sessions. She mentioned her idea to one work colleague and as word spread, other women came on board to join her. This gave rise to her hosting boot camp sessions.
“I have a small group. We work together and inspire each other. That is my goal, women inspiring women all around. I promote strong women and I use my social media to do such. Over the past five or six years I have evolved into this person who encourages and inspires others to do better and be better,” she said.
She provided words of encouragement to women who may have been neglecting their health checks saying, “Women in generally need to be openminded and going to the doctor and getting checked. I encourage women, no matter what age, to see what the results are. Find a doctor you are comfortable with and open up. We also need to speak to our daughters when they get to that age about seeing their doctors and
understanding the process.”
