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“My friends would bring several different home-made pies and we would share them with the others on the ward. I think I gave my friends the opportunity to experience another side of life, and for me they were the strongest medicine.” summer and the heat was unbearable.

“They took a bottle of perfume and they more or less emptied it on my clothes. After a while we couldn’t breathe and neither could the rest of the patients.

“So we evacuated the room and went outside. I must mention that the other patients and I felt like a group.

“My friends would bring several different home-made pies and we would share them with the others on the ward. I think I gave my friends the opportunity to experience another side of life, and for me they were the strongest medicine. I never lost it and when it was all over we were left with a bond that cannot be compared to anything else.”

They have been friends for years now. Some of them are classmates from her old school in Limassol who ended up marrying men from Nicosia.

“At the wedding of the last one, from the Limassol group, I said that I wanted to find someone from Nicosia so that I could follow them and that was the night I met Charilaos.”

“When I want to feel good, I put on my trainers and walk. I can walk for hours without getting tired. It’s as if my battery is being recharged. At first I felt that God sent me something that I could beat, and that’s a great feeling. I thought thank goodness this is the only thing I have.

“From the moment that this adventure ended for me my mind was on those that were left behind. The hope that you keep alive inside you that they will get better is so strong it keeps you connected to them. You can’t turn your back on them.”

Recently, she became a member of the Anti-Cancer Society’s council. She feels the most important thing is that more should be done for awareness. The money that is spent on treating patients who did not detect the problem earlier could be used for an awareness campaign.

“For instance, one woman had to go to England four times for operations. If I could have warned her so that she would be aware of the problem and deal with it early on, she would not have to go through all that she did. Plus all that money could have been used to increase awareness for others as well.”

She tells me that she had been able to deal with it all so well because she knew that her suffering had an end date. Others don’t know when it will end. Or how.

“When you get through it you just want to forget. Never again did I dress in the clothes I wore then and I no longer use the bag I used to take with me to the Oncology centre. I never want to smell the perfume I used then”.

She kisses me on both cheeks even though I spoiled her mood by telling her that she will be photographed alone.

“But can’t my friends be in the picture too?”

Her request was politely refused but she insisted, until deciding that this is one battle she would let me win.