As the country observes breast cancer awareness month, a 37-year-old breast cancer survivor from Matiyani village outside Malamulele in Limpopo, has launched an awareness campaign.

Chauke Mawisa, who has been living with breast cancer for six years, believes that her campaign will give hope to others diagnosed with the disease.

Chauke says the diagnosis changed her life.

She’s maintaining a positive attitude that she will heal.

“Breast cancer changed my life in a way that I don’t view the world as it is or I don’t look at the world as I used to before. So, it made me more positive as much as I was a positive person before cancer but, it made me more positive, it made me to be grateful, it made me to appreciate everything that is happening in my life whether it’s little or big,” adds Chauke.

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Meanwhile, a medical practitioner Dr Ambani Mathivha says there are increasing cases of breast cancer being recorded in the past 20 years.

“The risk for a South African woman to be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime is estimated to be 1 in 27, there is a raising incident of the number of cases that has been increasing over the last 20 years. Also, a huge link with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and breast cancer which is a specific concern as many HIV positive women are diagnosed at a younger age and with more advanced cancer which complicates their treatment and outcomes,” says Mathivha.

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