Two years ago, Nguyen Khanh Thuong, also known as Thuong Sobey, was diagnosed with second-stage breast cancer, just three days after her engagement ceremony with an Australian man.

Before the wedding ceremony, she received bad news that she was in the fourth stage of cancer which had spread to other organs of her body.

Despite many difficulties, the 32-year-old woman who is currently living in Australia still keeps a positive attitude and is organizing a campaign called “Manh Hon So Hai” (stronger than the fear) dedicated to people with breast cancer.

The campaign officially kicked off on October 25.

Love will conquer all

Thuong went through an operation to remove the tumors in both breasts in April this year. At the age of 32, Thuong said her appearance and personality are like a 50-year-old woman’s with wrinkled skin and hair loss.

“After the operation, I was scared seeing the scars. Even women felt sorry for me, not to mention men’s reaction,” Thuong, who used to be a dynamic and smiley person before being diagnosed with cancer in October 2012, shared.

“She was the one who wanted to stop the wedding but her boyfriend said breast cancer would not affect his love for her,” Thuong’s sister Nguyen Thuy Tien said.

In late 2012, a medical result in Australia showed that she was in the fourth stage and had tumors developed in other organs of the body.

The couple got married in January 2013.

Tien currently manages a network for breast cancer patients in Vietnam established by her sister.

Nguyen Hoang Anh, director of Heathbridge Canada in Vietnam, a foundation that supports the network by building websites and providing documents for breast cancer patients, said that she knows many people who committed suicide after being diagnosed with cancer.

“Cancer patients always feel that they are waiting for death to come. When meeting Thuong, I saw her strong love for life and her willingness to support other patients, so that’s why she established the network for people who are in the same boat. I admire the way Thuong overcame her fear,” Anh shared.

Unstoppable hope

Thuong said she was born a girl who never knew how to love her breasts until the day she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to remove them to save her life.

“I went through two operations to remove the tumors. I want other women to know how to love their breasts. They should also understand that breast cancer is a disease we are able to avoid,” Thuong stated.

“I had to cut my hair and my breasts, but there were things that I would never give up even in my hardest moments, which are love and hope. I want unfortunate women to know that belief and love of life are even stronger than our fear,” she added.

Thuong’s network of breast cancer people has organized many campaigns for hundreds of cancer patients including providing wigs to those who lost their hair after treatment, teaching yoga and exchanging experiences in terms of nutrition and treatment methods.

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