Mirlande is a 50-year-old woman who is from a commune in Haiti and resides there with her husband. She enjoys going to church and participates in the activities put on by her church regularly. To support herself, Mirlande has always sold alimentary products as a street merchant.
In April 2016, Mirlande started to feel pain in her right arm that eventually moved to the top of her chest. She immediately went to the hospital. She was referred to another facility in Port-au-Prince, the capital, to have a sonogram and mammogram. Nothing abnormal was found in her breast. For three months, Mirlande had exams and multiple follow-up visits but she never received any results about the mass. After a lot of frustration and money spent, she finally went to a private doctor, where she was officially diagnosed with breast cancer and was referred to our medical partner’s care center.
In January, she started her chemotherapy, a treatment that decreases the cancerous cells in the body. After four sessions of chemotherapy, Mirlande will be having a mastectomy on August 4. Our medical partner, Innovating Health International, is requesting $1,085 to fund her care.
She says, “We are human and we do get sick but you have to take care of yourself and be strong.”
