Woman of the week: Clarisse Galli

“In October our Women of the Week will be sharing their stories, as part of our Breast Cancer Awareness Month Pink Light Project. Today, we hear from Avon Product Manager and Breast Cancer Survivor, Clarisse”

Woman of the week: Clarisse Galli

Beauty Entrepreneur, Brazil

My journey with breast cancer started in May 2017, when I was 30. I was up to date with my routine exams. The last was in August 2016 and the following April I noticed a hardening on the top of my breast.

When I had it checked, the cancer was already very aggressive: 3cm, growing fast and in stage 3 – I had the invasive ductal carcinoma – triple negative in stage 3 (without metastases).

The first people I talked to were my family. They helped me a lot to calm down. Then I spoke to my friends.

In the beginning I was so scared, sad and afraid. It’s not easy at 30 years old to face the possibility that your life might be over before it has really happened. But some days later I realised I was facing two choices: I could sink and let the disease take me down or I could come up for air and realise that being up was so much better than being down.

I needed to find myself and reconnect with me again to find the peace and the strength inside of me.

The cancer came to me with a huge purpose and I’m so glad to share my story and to help other women to face the process with courage and faith that everything passes and even the bad moments are part of our experience and growth process.

I felt very confident about the treatment, and I think that helped me a lot because I did not feel nausea before the chemotherapy.

I started to walk in a park in the city for an hour every day to help the oxygen pump into my blood, I changed my diet and started to spread positive vibes and love. I was always grateful to be alive and was sure that every day I was much closer to healing. I felt a huge desire to live, and began to see life differently. I was grateful to be treated in a great hospital and working at Avon helped me a lot.

Valuing things that I didn’t care about in the past, to face my daily problems with a new perspective of a real problem – they became very small compared to cancer. I was just so glad to be alive.

It was very important to me to feel the unconditional love, compassion, union and strength from other people. To realised that people are praying for you, even people that I don’t know, made me a much better person and gave me the impulse to help construct a better world.

When I finished my chemotherapy, I told my story through my social media and participated in Avon’s Pink October to encourage other women to do the routine exams. The campaign was beautiful and this year I participated again in the Reps Magazine.

Now, thank God, I’m completely free from cancer and today my health is my priority. I’m full of health, very grateful to be alive and thankful for my process of growth and strengthening, and the opportunity to value myself every single day. I’m so glad to share my story to others because I think that I can help and encourage others to not be afraid of the diagnosis.

I believe that the sooner you discover the disease, the bigger the chance of cure. As I did, everyone can face the disease with hope and optimism. The best thing that I did during this period was take care of me, my mind and my feelings. I survived because in addition to the treatment, the cure started inside of me, and I did my best to be alive.

Browse other Representative stories