“Once that cell hit the lymphatic system in my neck, in just a matter of days, my neck was so swollen. I knew something was wrong.” Her surgeon, however, attributed the swelling to a side effect of her surgery, but Marcelle was persistent. Months later, she had a biopsy on her neck which came back irregular.
She remembers the call from the doctor’s office: “The doctor would like to talk to you. I knew at that point that I was in trouble.”
It was almost stage 3 cancer. In September 2022, she had two surgeries to remove the tumour in her mouth and 34 lymph nodes in her neck area. She had to stop working and let her family pick up the pieces and manage the household. “I lost all my muscle mass so I couldn’t walk for probably six or seven months, and I couldn’t eat for over a year.”
Luckily, she connected with the
Wheels of Hope program through the Canadian Cancer Society
where volunteer drivers took her to many of her hospital appointments. Her husband was there for her as much as possible, but he needed to keep his business afloat as sole income provider.
“In the end, it’s not important. It’s your family. Get the essentials you need and be happy,” Marcelle Abou Rjeily, third from right, says about her perspective on life after surviving multiple cancers.
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Following the surgeries, Marcelle had to deal with chemotherapy and 30 rounds of radiation therapy on her throat and chest. She was tired, had skin irritation from the radiation burn and lost a lot of her long, thick hair. And when she applied for government financial aid, she was denied because she couldn’t show income from her cleaning business. She also wasn’t able to do any part-time bookkeeping because she physically couldn’t be in an office for hours.