By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

A 29-year-old Grand Bahama mother diagnosed with stage two breast cancer just months after burying her mother from the same disease is pleading with women to get mammograms at any age.

Desire Sands, who learned of her diagnosis in April, said she is determined to survive for her three-year-old son even as she continues to grieve her mother, who died in September 2024.

“I went to the clinic, and I got the news, and honestly, in that moment nobody wants to hear that,” she told The Tribune. “I was numb, because I’ve already walked this road with my mother.”

Cancer has long haunted her family. Her mother taught her to do self-exams at home, and a benign lump was removed in 2013. But the disease returned in devastating fashion, striking her months after her mother’s funeral.

Living with sickle cell disease, Ms Sands regularly receives morphine to manage her pain. When she first noticed swelling near her chest, she dismissed it as a side effect of the medication. Only after the lump grew did she undergo X-rays, surgery and, by February this year, receive confirmation of stage two breast cancer, a month before turning 29 in May.

The diagnosis, she said, unleashed fear and anguish. She worried about how her grieving relatives would cope, how her son would manage without her, and how much she missed her mother’s guidance.

“I felt painless, because the only person that could relate to me was no longer here,” she said.

Ms Sands said her son keeps her focused on treatment. “I feel like he was the reason that I moved so quickly about everything, as well as being at the forefront of my mother’s journey,” she said. “Because, like I said, she was diagnosed in 2016, but she was scared and confused.”

Most of her days still look ordinary — going to work, playing with her son, spending time with family. But every three weeks she flies to New Providence for chemotherapy at Princess Margaret Hospital’s Oncology Clinic. She has completed four rounds with good results, but four more remain.

The toll is physical and financial. After chemotherapy, she often feels weak and struggles to eat. Medical bills weigh heavily, though she said her family has rallied to support her. Her son, too young to understand, notices her weight loss and fatigue.

Now she is determined to raise awareness. “When we hear breast cancer, it’s always normally associated with an older woman,” she said. “But during my time, my journey going through chemo. I’ve met a lot of young women, and it’s happening a lot.”