Provide support in difficult times

A diagnosis of cancer, followed by a hard recovery process, which included eight chemotherapies and 36 radiotherapy treatments, became the strength of Carol Stella, from Villalbeña, to direct an initiative of assistance, help and guidance to patients facing the illness.

As a breast cancer survivor, Stella, 53, experienced firsthand the difficulties of seeking help and making arrangements when her life hung in the balance. That experience and her gratitude “for being alive” motivated her to start the project.

“The chemotherapy process, I’m not lying to you, I cried for each one of them. It was the most intimate moment she had with God. I saw that red blood as the blood of Christ that entered my body. This taught me to love death as life is loved. I am a firm believer that, if God has offered us an eternal life, it has to be much more beautiful than this one. Cancer was a process that helped me heal and forgive and learn to see life as not everything is material,” she said.

“When they tap you on the shoulder and give you the diagnosis of a word as ugly as cancer, many ugly things come to mind. When I started this, my son was 10 years old and I only asked God to see him graduate from sixth grade, then I asked him to see him graduate from ninth and fourth grade. God gave me the joy of seeing him graduate from university, what more can I ask of life? May he give me life to continue doing what I like, which is helping people. I don’t love cancer, but I love everything it left me,” added Stella, whose cancer diagnosis was given in February 2007.

Five years later, already recovered from her illness, Stella became a link between patients and entities that could offer them help, whether psychological, physical or any service they required while they faced this fearsome condition. She also organized health and mammography clinics in Villalba, Adjuntas, Jayuya, Yauco and Peñuelas.

“For me it was like a dream to be able to serve as a link between patients and organizations because, as a patient myself and today as a survivor, I know how difficult it is to get help to pay for treatment. I believe that dreams come true when we tell them and, thanks to the generosity of Elides Bonilla, owner of Farmacias San Antonio, who believed in me and allowed me a space in her pharmacy to provide services, we stayed there for four years. ”, explained Stella, who has impacted over 200 cancer patients with her services. However, this project had a pause that was extended due to the pandemic, but since February of this year, she Stella is back on the load. This time, she was presented with the opportunity to resume that project of love from another location: the Caribbean Cancer Care Services in Ponce.

“We hadn’t been running the center for several years, but I never left. Little patients always appeared looking for my services. Until in December (2021) my oncologist allows me an office and since February (2022) we have been working”, commented the service coordinator, who through the non-profit Foundation Absolute Cancer Relief Fund manages breast prostheses, bra, wigs, disposable material for patients with colostomy or urostomy, as well as financial aid for deductibles in different tests, laboratories and treatments. With this new beginning, Stella longs to be that helping hand that reaches out to these people who are diagnosed and begin a tough battle.

“After two years, the opportunity arises to return to what I love and enjoy, which is serving others in the face of a cancer diagnosis. Being able to help them make this pilgrimage less burdensome. As a survivor that I am, there is a feeling. On one occasion, as a patient, they asked me: ‘What do you want to hear from me?’ And I told him: ‘Nothing, I just want a hug’. The idea is to tell the patient, ‘I’m here to help you, we’re going to do battle, we’re going to do that fight holding hands with daddy God’. If I could, how can others not be able to? As long as I can put a smile on a cancer patient, I’ve won. My mission is that, to be able to help them, to be able to give them that hug that we are often waiting for”said the survivor, who assures that before her diagnosis she learned “that my faith was stronger than him (cancer) and here I am living.”

To participate in the services provided by Carol Stella, you can visit the Edificio Parra office #607 in Ponce, in the facilities of Caribbean Cancer Care Services. They can also call 787-609-3863.

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