The widow of the late Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, Betty, has opened up on how a positive mindset played a crucial role during her battle with breast cancer and saved her from the disease that killed her husband in 2023.
TheNewsGuru recalls that Akeredolu passed away on Wednesday, December 27, 2023, during a protracted illness in a German hospital at the age of 67 and was laid to rest at the burial site in the community.
Sharing her experience while commemorating 2025 World Cancer Day, the former First Lady said her experience with the disease is a mixed grill of triumph and lately of grief.
She further added that her positive mindset played a major role in her surviving cancer.
She noted that she had to eliminate starchy foods such as pounded yam, eba, Amala, and Akpu from her diet to prolong her life, also stressing how going to seek medical care at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan instead of relying on spiritual healers was crucial.
She said, “My experience with cancer is a mixed grill, of triumph and lately of grief, having defeated breast cancer 27 years ago and just over a year, on December 26, 2023, I lost my husband, Aketi, to prostate cancer. For this conversation, I will tell my story to inform, inspire and empower the public to take action against cancer as an individual or as a community.
“To begin with, the major thing that saved me from untimely death at the age of 44 was my mindset or belief. I didn’t believe that my cancer was caused by anybody let alone by spiritual attack. So I didn’t go to church or spiritualist, I went to University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan. My educational status also enabled me to figure out that cancer is medical issue, nothing more. I was right! Doctors at UCH handled my case and if I may add, I presented early at stage 1 of the disease. No lymph node was affected, I got to know the implication as I began to read voraciously some medical publications on breast cancer such as Cochrane publications etc.
“As I read more and attended international conferences, I understood that my longevity after cancer diagnosis depended on my lifestyle. Looking at my children then and how young they were, I was determined to do everything in my power to live inorder to raise them. If stopping drinking coke and other minerals, swallowing eba, pounded yam, amala and akpu would prolong my life knowing that starchy foods and sugar fuel the growth of cancer, so be it. That was exactly what I did. I stopped drinking minerals, no “swallow” and no bread since 2000!
“My food includes the following: veggies, smoothies, green tea, lemon and ginger tea, beans, moimoi, fish, chicken, snail, occasional rice and zobo drink. Exercise, especially jogging, a flagship activity of BRECAN organised during Pink October also became part of my healthy lifestyle.
“Connecting with people especially those with shared experience is critical in bringing emotional support in cancer journey. It is one of the reasons behind founding BRECAN. We now have a community of breast cancer survivors named Team Survivors Nigeria (TSN) for psychosocial support among members and to showcase that breast cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence. Today, I’m proudly a 27 year breast cancer survivor, thriving and still counting!”