Urbanus ‘Whytie’ de Witt: GHOH (Survivor and Caregiver)

Owing to my work, I had a mental block out and got a blunt view out of life but in 2009. My wife was also diagnosed with breast cancer, and my world fell out underneath my feet but realised there is life. I have four children and at that time my youngest was seven years old and I did not know how to deal with that and how to tell my children, but my wife was a trooper and she fought. She is thankfully now 13 years in remission.

My journey with the ‘C word’ started back in 2018, I found- what I thought at the time to be a pimple- on my face, I kept scratching it and letting it heal and it just came back, and one day while I was at the doctor’s office, I asked him to take a look at it. As doctor’s do, he looked a bit concerned at this abnormality. He then said let’s cut out it out and this turned out to be a melanoma of some sort. My wife taught me that there is life with cancer, with her positive attitude gave me the sense of living and to be part of this journey not only for myself but also for my family and all the other people out there that received that the message, ‘you have cancer’ from a doctor.

The CANSA Relay For Life, gives me that sense of family, companionship, the comfort you receive that you are not alone and the closeness of the survivors, and the caregivers. These feelings cannot be put into words to describe it, the only words that come to mind are overwhelming, motivation, achievement, love and just pure HOPE.

When you finish the last round (of Relay) the next morning, exhausted and tired, and you see the success of the event with all the new people you’ve met and the positivity of the whole night it gives you so much satisfaction that you can’t wait to start planning the next one.