PETACH TIKVAH, Israel (Press Release) — Sigal Ered and her camera were siamese twins. Her camera never left her hands. Photography was her career. Photography was her love. And for dessert, she engaged in sports. Sigal’s life was full, until the day it all stopped. Here is her story in her own words:
“I’ll never forget the day I found a lump. The lump had a name: Metastatic Breast Cancer. We were living in Germany at the time on a diplomatic mission. Life consisted of surgery followed by treatments. It’s three and a half years and I still don’t know when, or if, I’ll ever get back into the world of normalcy. I know that I’ll never be entirely cured of it. Metastatic cancer is a chronic condition. It’s in my bones. All you can do is keep it dormant and continue taking treatments so that the cancer will not spread any further.
“I have my ups and downs. It’s not easy to live on this Island of Illness. But I know that I can always call Ezer Mizion when I’m down. The staff will really listen. They care. Sometimes it’s an upcoming fun event that does it. Sometimes it’s a long phone call, as long as I need, that puts that smile back on my face. These are professional people who could command a high salary but they choose to join the Ezer Mizion staff where compassion and caring are the order of the day. The line is never busy. They’re always there for me.
“For the first year, during the most difficult treatments and after the surgery, I couldn’t even touch my camera. When we got back to Israel, I started studying design and architecture, and slowly but surely, the camera came back into my hands. I produced an exhibit that was displayed at the Cinematheque in Tel Aviv and at the Diamond Theater in Ramat Gan, and that really gave me a boost. When the Ezer Mizion staff heard my good news, they couldn’t have been happier for me had they been my sisters.
“Slowly I began to live again, albeit on another planet, a planet of awareness. Awareness that life is not a given. It could end any moment. It’s up to me to make the most of each day but it’s not me that’s in charge. I was coping. I was moving forward. Until…lightning struck again.
“Nitzan, my 17-year-old daughter woke up one morning with a stiff neck. ‘Mommy, I have some kind of a lump,’ were the ominous words I heard. And the nightmare began again. Until the last minute, when we received final results of the biopsy, I refused to believe that Nitzan really had cancer.
“We had sat tensely in the doctor’s office, mother and daughter . When we were told that Nitzan had Hodgkin’s disease (cancer of the lymph nodes), I broke down for the moment. This can’t be happening to us a second time. We already paid enough.
“I am coping with my illness in the best possible way but I don’t know how to cope with my child’s illness. When a mother sees her daughter suffering, it’s just terrible. When I see my daughter getting chemotherapy like I got, the poison entering her body, her hair falling out, when I see her going through everything I suffered – it’s hard. But somehow, you find the strength to cope. Negative thoughts don’t get you anywhere. I know that Nitzan’s cancer has high rates of recovery, and I’m sure she’ll get better.”
*
Nitzan has another six chemotherapy treatments left. Each treatment takes about six hours, during which the chemotherapy material is dripped into her body intravenously. “During the treatment, I don’t feel a thing. After the treatment, I suffer from fatigue, nausea and jaw pain. But I don’t have too many treatments left, and the end is already in sight,” she relates. “My mother introduced me to Ezer Mizion. They seem to know exactly what I need, sometimes before I do.”
From the moment Nitzan became ill, Sigal started getting hormonal treatment. “It’s a lighter kind of treatment, and I opted for it so that I could care for my daughter. Sigal does not lose hope for a moment. “The most important thing right now is that Nitzan should recover. We are optimistic and strong, and we’ll get through it together. I am always with a smile. Ezer Mizion is the staff that I lean on. I never ‘kvetch’ and Nitzan learns from me. We live under the same shadow of the illness. But when the shadow gets dark and scary, we both grope through the darkness and reach out to Ezer Mizion.
“This summer we had a blast together at Ezer Mizion’s summer camp. Nitzan absolutely bloomed there. We were among sixty sick children and their families and sixty sick adults and their families participating in the marvelous Ezer Mizion summer camp program. Ezer Mizion understands that even though the family members are physically healthy, they suffer greatly emotionally. The other families had only one member who was actually sick but every single person who attended desperately needed the tremendous TLC and fun, fun, fun that Ezer Mizion staff lavishly doled out. No one but another cancer sufferer can describe the unbearable tension that pervades our daily lives living on the Island of Illness. Ezer Mizion’s Summer Camp was a slice of sunshine. And they don’t stop there. Ezer Mizion provides periodic getaways, some for children or teens, some for mothers. Recently a hotel getaway was arranged where mothers battling cancer were treated to a day just for them.
*
Preceding provided by Ezer Mizion. For further info: www.ezermizion.org