The Amrani family from the community of Hofit did not imagine how every year October, which marks the awareness of breast cancer, would be made significant for them.
In 2011 the family received the sad news that Claudia's mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer, after her mother had died of lymphoma five years earlier.
Claudia did not imagine that until she managed to overcome the cancer her second daughter would have leukemia, she would fight the disease for almost a year, she would recover and in 2020 Claudia would start breast cancer for the second time.
Today, while battling the disease again, her youngest daughter May, a fitness trainer by profession, is holding a major fundraising event on October 29 to raise breast cancer awareness: "It was important to me to hold such an event precisely in light of our family background. Our psyche is there, not to mention the ability to pay for all the expensive treatments. "
"Your body is cheating on you"
The Amrani family from the locality of Hofit includes the mother Claudia (60), the father Reuven (64) and their daughters Hila (39), Shani (37), Mika (32), Ariel (28) and Mai (22)
How did you feel the day you found out that Claudia was ill?
Claudia: "The first time I was diagnosed, I felt like the sky was falling on me. The second time, we were more of a 'blop' - awareness of the meaning of the disease and its treatment, but you do not turn and understand that you have to go through it again. "My friend, who was ill with another disease, died shortly before the discovery and it did something to my body. To be on the safe side I went to be tested and we were sure I would finish the tests and go back to cooking Friday meal, needless to say there was no meal and our world shook again."
May Amrani, holds a major fundraising event on October 29 to raise breast cancer awareness,
May: "When my mother first got sick I was 12. It was not easy to cope, but the four nurses raised me. When my sister got sick I was in high school and did not feel like I had a normal adolescence experience. When I found out about mom again last year, "I believed it was happening again. Nobody knew how to tell the disease in the body. You know it does not look good, and that's it."
Mika and May: "When you hear people talk about the cancer coming back, you automatically say 'it will not happen to me' and here, in the first diagnosis she underwent chemotherapy and even a resection that should prevent the cancer from returning, which did not happen and no one understood why. In this diagnosis, She is simply being treated in a way that will allow her to live with the cancer and not to get rid of it - because the doctors said it was impossible. "
Are you blaming anyone
?
All of them: "Look, no one had any intention that God forbid such a thing would happen, but we have the question 'if she has already had a resection, then why?'
At the time, they did not know how to tell us that the type of mother is common back to the body, but the "why" comes all the time and gives a kind of incessant headache. "
"You have to live, you have to live"
Shani's diagnosis came at a chilling time, a few days after the wedding of Hila, the older sister. "We were in a crazy euphoria, no one imagined that on Sunday you were at the wedding and on Friday you were in chemotherapy," says May. .To not sure to this day that there is a direct connection between the two, but it is an assessment that has come up. From the moment she gave birth she started to feel very unwell, but threw it on the birth and thought it was related to it. He thought to himself, "A healthy, fit girl, you really do not raise this possibility."
May recounts the gospel moment: "I came home from work, lay down on the couch to take a nap, heard from the side my mother answering the phone and realized it was a stressful phone call, that two on the way to tests but still do not know what it is. I tried to go back to sleep but I was restless. "He started running but after a few hours another phone call - my mother answered and collapsed, shouted to heaven, so I already knew."
How do you deal with a serious illness that strikes hard in your home?
May: "To see my mother get up from a breakdown, wipe away the tears and stand in such a way, as if she is going to war that she will not give up - finished me. How much strength she has. It gives us all the strength and inspiration every day not to despair. Beyond that the huge connection between us girls "He has the strength. That's how we were raised and raised, to be one for the other."
Ariel: "When something happens to one sister, it happens not only to her, but to all of them. It is obvious that we will mobilize for each other in every situation."
Mika: "We must not forget that although there is all this coping, but it is not the only thing. There is life apart from the disease, children, careers and even with that one copes regularly, one has to live. One must live."
Do you feel that the crazy upheaval you went through as a family was a kind of lesson in life
?
May: "Every few years something difficult has happened in my family. Each family has its own challenges, but our challenges put me in proportions. Reminds me of how much we have gone through and how much strength we have."
Mika: "The disease comes to say to you: 'Ma'am, you did something bad to your body, change', because it is very easy to forget yourself and the body responds to it. Since my mother's second diagnosis I have made a huge change in my perception of life, ".
All of them: "People tell us 'well done' all the time. It's not that we are not thankful for this paragon but for us it's really obvious - no one will be alone."
"It's not easy to find the strength to get up smiling every day anew," Claudia says with tears in her eyes. "The strength is in the power of 'togetherness.'
In conclusion, they all want to emphasize the message that: "There is a great connection between body and mind, they are one. You do not always see the connection between breast cancer and the body, listen to yourself and do not be complacent! Even when there is no lump - go get tested."
The event will take place in the heart of Hofit - on October 29, 21 in collaboration with the "One in Nine" organization that supports women with breast cancer. It will have a variety of stalls, hair donation for those interested, food, music and a good atmosphere, when all proceeds from the event will be donated to the association.