Actor-turned-author Lisa Ray recently attended an event in Delhi where she spoke about her battle with cancer and how she reacted to the news of the diagnosis. She was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2009 and was declared cancer-free, after a stem cell transplant.
Speaking at the event, she opened about her cancer diagnosis. She said, “My doctor was scared because after he announced to me that I had multiple myeloma, I didn’t react. Even though he said it was incurable and fatal. In my mind, I was thinking that my body has been trying to give me signals for months, and I was ignoring them. Then I got this strongest possible message. Intuitively, I knew something was wrong. But I didn’t have the courage to do anything, because I was trained to ignore what my body was telling me.”
She went on to add, “In our profession, you can’t go home when you’re sick. You pop medicines and get on with work. In addition, I hadn’t really dealt with the trauma of the accident I was in. What do we do when we don’t want to face something? We keep busy. I did that. Until finally I had to stop, listen to my body, heal and make changes. In a strange way, I realised it was a time of reckoning. I knew it wasn’t the end of me, I knew I wasn’t going to die, but I also knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
Meanwhile, Lisa came out with her autobiography ‘Close To The Bone’ this year. It talks about her career as an actor and a model, struggles with cancer, her victory and much more. Lisa is married to management consultant Jason Dehni. The two welcomed twin daughters Soleil and Sufi via surrogacy in 2018.
Also Read: “I think the repression of woman in India is so institutionalized” – Lisa Ray