With the fundraising Canberra Mother’s Day Classic about to hit the streets again, BINA BROWN meets a mum who’s come through terrible adversity to believe in a “genuine feeling that there is life after cancer”. 

CANCELLED holidays and isolation may have been the norm for most of us in recent years, but for Sugar Masangcay it wasn’t just the pandemic that stopped her in her tracks.

The 40-year-old mother of two had been planning to show off her boys, Keiran, 5, and Kaleb, 3, to family in the Philippines when she received the traumatic news that she had an invasive carcinoma in her left breast.

She was breastfeeding Kaleb at the time and, like many women, thought nothing of a lump.

But a biopsy and a trip to the surgeon, who described the lump as “big, bad and aggressive”, saw her determined to roll with what was to come.

“I couldn’t cancel that trip to the Philippines but I knew I had to get through chemotherapy and to see my mother in Davao,” says Sugar.

In 2019 she endured a heavy course of drugs and a bout of pneumonia, which saw her living in isolation before it became reality for everyone else.

Her decision to visit the Philippines between chemotherapy and surgery was risky, but it was also her driving force.

“Everyone was thinking I’d be sick, but my heart was full and I felt like my whole self,” she says.

Little did she know she would fly back into a city clouded in bushfire smoke from the 2020 fires, which caused further infection and delayed surgery.

By the time she had recovered from a lumpectomy and was ready to face the world once again, the covid lockdown had begun.

The extra home time for recovery might have been a blessing if the side effects from the chemotherapy and hormone treatment hadn’t left her feeling like she was “constantly climbing up a hill”.

She attributes staying well as she was looked after by her Australian family and young boys who would lovingly rub lotion on her rash-covered skin.

Living with constant pain in her joints and without sleep, the normally sunny Sugar regularly found herself cranky, sad and often unrecognisable. 

“Nobody tells you just how emotional you can get from all the treatment. I was doing everything the counsellors said, like finding joyful things to do and finding time for myself but I was very anaemic and having the blues,” she says.

As it turns out her uterus was also impacted and just as she was about to return to study at CIT, Sugar underwent an endometrial ablation to stop heavy bleeding.

Post cancer treatment, Sugar found great comfort and friendship at Dragons Abreast Canberra, one of many global dragon boating clubs set up to support people affected by breast cancer and promote the benefits of an active lifestyle after diagnosis.

“You get a genuine feeling that there is life after cancer,” she says.

The reality is, 55 Australians are diagnosed with breast cancer every day and while survival rates have greatly improved, nine Australians die from it every single day.

Sugar will be one of many volunteers at this year’s Mother’s Day Classic event – held each year to help raise money for breast cancer research and support the National Breast Cancer Foundation’s goal of zero deaths from breast cancer by 2030. 

To register to walk, run, volunteer or fundraise for the May 8 event go to www.mothersdayclassic.com.au

Author Bina Brown is a journalist and member of the Canberra Mother’s Day Classic organising committee.