Living her best life – with cancer
January is Cervical Health Awareness Month and with that in mind, Northwell Health brings us the story of a young woman determined not to let cervical cancer – the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths among women – beat her.
Elmsford resident Maria Aguaiza came to the United States from Ecuador to be with her mother when she was 16. Like many immigrants, she saw the U.S. as a country of opportunity and wanted a better life. She applied herself, finished high school and eventually became a nursing assistant, working two jobs, one at Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow.
She has taken classes to fulfill her dream to become an oncology nurse but last year suffered a devastating setback. Shortly after her annual Pap smear, the 29-year-old was diagnosed with incurable metastatic cervical cancer, which is very rare. However, this cheerful, charismatic woman refuses to give up and wants to inspire other people to see that that there is life after a cancer diagnosis.
She continues to work despite having chemotherapy infusions every three weeks at Phelps, is in the process of becoming an oncology nurse, takes advantage of free therapy classes at Northern Westchester Hospital’s Cancer Institute in Mount Kisco and is living her best life with family and friends.
An article published Jan. 23 in Nature talks about AI screening that could be a potential game-changer for cervical cancer. However, Gizelka David-West, M.D., the oncological gynecologist who along with hematologist/oncologist Keyur Thakar, M.D., MPH is treating Aguaiza, had this to say about AI and cervical cancer: “This AI technology is not ready for prime time, and it is also something more fitting for low resource countries that do not have same screening capabilities/same resources as we do in this country. It should not be advertised as standard of care or practice-changing as of yet.”
Still, the glamorous Aguaiza wants people to know her story and that regular screenings along with new research are important for all women. As her chic T-shirt proclaims: “Cancer picked the wrong girl.”