Tollywood actress Hamsa Nandini had a tough time during COVID, caring for her father, uncle and grandmother in Pune who’d all been diagnosed with the infection. Now, the actress, who has been missing in action for a while, opened up about having been detected with cancer four months ago after she’d felt a lump in her breast.
Not the one to be deterred by challenges, she’s fighting on. “No matter what life throws at me, no matter how unfair it may seem, I refuse to play the victim. I refuse to be ruled by fear, pessimism and negativity. I refuse to quit. I will push forward with courage and love,” she tells us.
However, the first few days after having learnt of her condition were difficult for the actress. “The trauma of my mother, whom I’d lost to cancer, came gushing out. Within a few hours, I rushed to a mammography centre for my very first mammogram. My fears were confirmed. I was diagnosed with a Grade III Invasive Carcinoma (breast cancer) and was immediately asked to meet a surgical oncologist to discuss the type of biopsy that needed to be carried out. Thereafter, I was beseeched with the pangs of trauma from my mother’s battle with cancer, driving me into a volley of nightmares,” recollects Hamsa Nadhini, adding that she felt a sense of déja vu, reminiscing about her mother’s valiant battle with cancer, which, however, ended with her demise.
Thinking back on those days, the actress talks about how we all have such grand plans for our lives.
“As for mine, no number of adjustments seemed enough to accommodate the malady that became a proverbial tumour of my precious time. With thorough consultations from a surgical oncologist, PET scans and a plethora of other tests, I learnt that I’d need to undergo a lumpectomy, 16 cycles of chemotherapy and radiation,” she says.
More fight
Further, Hamsa Nadhini was asked to undergo a genetic test called BRCA as the doctors suspected her cancer was hereditary. “I tested positive for the BRCA1 mutation and my battle morphed into a full-blown war,” she says. “I was told that throughout my life, there was a 70% chance of me redeveloping another breast cancer and a 45% chance of developing ovarian cancer. That meant my fight didn’t end with lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. I’d have to go through multiple prophylactic surgeries over the next three years and that eliminating all the risks is impossible and that the threat of cancer will loom on for as long as I live.”
At the moment, the actress has already undergone nine cycles of chemo. Observing the physical and mental changes in herself has not been easy either, but the fighter she is, Hamsa Nandhini tries to instil in her a sense of acceptance. “I realise I’ve inherited my mother’s incorrigible optimism during her own fight with the same cancer, though I lost her at the early age of 40,” she states. “She taught me that some of the biggest adversities are often the strongest opportunities for a larger cause. From that perspective, this journey has been bestowed upon me as an added responsibility, a newly added purpose to my life. As for the craft of acting, which will always be my first love, I shall come back stronger and better. This is my promise.”
