The biopsy was routine for the medical staff but for me the unbearable time of waiting for the results started. During the next few days, my emotions pulled everything out of context. The friendly smile of a nurse became pity I did not want. Not yet! Every time the pain was bad, I could hear the messenger of death knocking at my door. I felt negative and over-sensitive to everything people around me were saying. On the occasions that I tried to talk about my condition, the nurses were all too quick to set my mind at rest. It felt like they were not allowing me to deal with the reality of facing a possible mastectomy. I became utterly frustrated that nobody seemed to hear my silent cries for help.

Days later the diagnoses of cancer shocked me to the core. There were tears of rebellion as the horror and fear washed over me. Life as I knew it had on that day changed completely for me. At that stage I did not know how many changes still awaited me in the near future.

Within the next 10 days I had a radical mastectomy, my husband left me for greener pastures and my parents took me in to live with them.

Something else that is noteworthy also happened the evening before my mastectomy. I shared a ward with another woman who also had breast cancer and would have a mastectomy the next day. She lay in her bed silently crying her fears into her pillow and I felt such a powerful empathy for her, that my wishing to help her became overwhelming. Suddenly I realised that in reaching out, I had found the inner strength I was searching for. I had taken my first step on the road to being a survivor.

Two weeks after the surgery my world was rocked again as a lump in my right breast was discovered. Within days I went through another mastectomy.

The next nearly seven months of vigorous chemo therapy saw me lose all my hair and surprisingly I found that much more dramatic than the amputation of both breasts. As the months passed, my weight dropped from 65kg to 32kg. My oncologist told me that there was unfortunately nothing more that could be done for me - I was declared terminal.

I was scared. I did not know how to die so I decided to simply continue with life in a positive a manner. The burning ambition I had to help other women came to the foreground again and I knew then that I would spend the rest of the time granted to me to do just that.

During the next year I dedicated my time to other cancer victims by talking them into being positive. My hair grew back and I picked up weight which puzzled me somewhat. Then came the sweetest words I had ever heard - "spontaneous remission!" It happened at my cancer check-up and what's more, is the hospital had also decided to try an unusual operation on my spine.

Months later I was able to put my wheelchair into storage and we celebrated life. The years went by as I fought my way back to complete health. I met my future husband, Terry Gallagher, and together we decided to paddle the upper Orange River for my pet cause - cancer awareness.

The deep river of cancer I had to cross was not of my choosing but today I feel eternally grateful for the experience and strength I gained as a result. I had become a cancer survivor.

My second deep river was totally by choice for all the beautiful ladies who just happened to be unfortunate enough to have lost a breast through breast cancer. You are still fully women and beautiful - never doubt that.

After the trip on the upper Orange I wrote the book “One More River”, telling the story of both my deep rivers in order to reach as many cancer victims as possible and to turn them all into survivors. I took a vow to one day return to the river and to paddle to the end where the muddy waters meet the ocean in Alexander Bay.

During the middle of last year I received a phone call from one of my readers. She was Antoinette Morgan of Johannesburg. She was interested in paddling the Orange River and wanted to speak to other people who had completed sections of the river. We spoke for hours on that occasion and realised that we spoke the same language. She asked me to paddle with her from Aliwal North to Alexander Bay to which I agreed. Our trip is happening this year on the 3^rd of March to reach Alexander Bay at the end of April. Our plans are to stop off at as many towns as possible to meet people and talk to them about cancer.

We are doing this trip in Inflatable kayaks and hope to break the record of the first people who ever paddled that distance (1,700km) on the river in inflatables. We are paddling for cancer awareness and with the purpose of raising funds for people living with cancer through the “Moments in Time” trust.

Mariaane Basson