Coping with breast cancer is ‘up and down’: Shelly Thorpe

For Barbadian Shelly Thorpe, coping with breast is “up and down.”
“That means (that) some days I feel like nothing is wrong with me, and, other days, I can’t get out of my bed,” the Brooklyn resident told Caribbean Life on Sunday.

Thorpe, who migrated to Brooklyn from the parish of St. George in Barbados in 1992, said she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2019.
She said that, one morning, after taking a shower, she felt a lump in her breast and immediately called in sick as a Home Health Aide, and went immediately to see the doctor.

“When my oncologist told me I was positive, I asked him if he was sure,” Thorpe said. “He said, ‘yes, Ms. Thorpe.’ I broke down the same time.
“The doctor told me (that) I have to move quickly,” she added. “He made an appointment for the C-Floor at Kings Country Hospital (in the heart of the Caribbean Community in Brooklyn).

“After all the different mammograms, that (breast cancer) changed my life, and I started to cry,” Thorpe continued. “My daughter, Alexis, is the only person who came to my mind (at the time). The first body (person) I saw when I came out (from the doctor’s office) was Anderson Straker (fellow Barbadian), and I just broke down.
“When I told my kids, they were devastated; they started to cry,” she said.

Thorpe said she underwent six months of chemotherapy and an additional six months of radiation for the metastatic breast cancer, which had spread to her lungs.
“The first thing I experienced was hair loss,” she said. “I had dreads.
“Being diagnosed with breast cancer can be very depressing, and you need a very good support team and family to be with you,” Thorpe added. “Think positive at all times.
“At this time, I’m on chemo pills and about to start radiation again,” she disclosed.

In an October 2019 Facebook interview, Thorpe, who has been a seamstress, since her early years in Barbados, said she is still engaged in the occupation, as well as conduct party decorations.
In addition, she said she loves to dance.
“If I go out and I feel up to it, I still dance,” she said. “If I go to dance, and I dance and I get tired, I sit down.”
But she said her faith has kept her through since diagnosis.
As a member of Calvary St. Cyprian Church, “for my sickness, I pray more,” Thorpe said, adding that her church family, and family members and “good friends” have been at her side throughout her ordeal.