Brazilian actress, host, and model Daiana Menezes saw death face-to-face when she was diagnosed with breast cancer triple positive stage 2B last year. It was a dark time, but she emerged unafraid and came out stronger.
“I am no longer scared of pain and death. I can honestly say I am happy now. I learned the value of every moment in life. Life is precious, don’t waste time on negative people and situations,” she shares.
Early in 2018, Menezes felt a lump on her left breast. It was a new year, and she was hopeful that it was just a cyst. During her breast ultrasound, nothing was evident when her arm was raised in the position for self-examination. Menezes insisted on redoing the ultrasound with her arm down and something with a weird shape appeared
“They said that’s how the malignant type looks like, I was still trying to remain positive and unfortunately, I couldn’t do the biopsy right away, as I was going to sing and dance in two shows in Dubai, and I knew I couldn’t move around if I had a biopsy which was also the doctor’s advice,” relates Menezes.
She continues, “In my mind I thought, I need to work, I need to save even more now that I had an uncertain situation ongoing, I prioritized my work and had to wait for a while, finish my concerts and hostings.”
“There’s not a particular degree of difficulty that we can put in words when you get diagnosed with cancer. No matter what type, your world just seems to fall apart. My family was shocked because of my age and lifestyle, but they helped me and gave me a lot of support,” shares Menezes, who finds strength in her mother and family in Brazil, and friends in the Philippines.
Her doctors, incumbent president and chief executive of St. Luke’s Medical Center Dr. Arturo S. De La Peña, Dr. Farrah Augustin Bunch, and Dr. Homer Lim, advised Menezes to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to avoid being stressed.
“The most difficult was to adapt to my new diet. And I thought I was a healthy eater. It was a total change,” she shares.
Menezes says if she could have done more before cancer, she would have prioritized herself, lived a stress-free life, not waste time worrying so much, eat a lot, and spend more time around positive people.
“Many people don’t know that about me, but I’m a giver and I forgot to love myself before I got sick. I guess those are my only regrets but I don’t like talking about it because every moment I wasted on stress was also a lesson for what I am living now,” enthuses the lead of music group 8ONE.
Her faith and family keep her strong and fighting. The 32-year-old still has many goals in life, including having a baby one day and building her own family, as well as making more music and inspiring people going through struggles.
“The greatest I learned [from this ordeal] is that time is precious. Your existence is important, don’t let anyone make you think otherwise. Believe in yourself, love yourself; that’s the only thing you can guarantee for the short time you’re given on this Earth, be thankful every day,” ends Menezes.