2025's World Cancer Day hits differently.

This April I celebrate my 42nd birthday, when my mom was 42 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It is something that has been on my mind as the days pass.

Over the years I have shared on social media various snippets about my mom and her 17 year journey with cancer. Years of remission and recurrence, years of trial and grace. One day (maybe soon) I shall write a book about our experiences together, our stories. Until then, here are some writings that I have shared on social media:

• In 2021, as part of the #MarchMeetTheMaker challenge, I shared this bit on Focus and Priorities:

"I've shared previously that my mom was my first teacher and the one who started me on my journey with yoga. I've shared that I became a yoga instructor after my mom's passing in 2013. I've shared a bit about her 17 year journey with cancer. Have I shared that it was seeing and experiencing how her yoga practice supported her and our family during that time that motivates me each day to share about yoga?

My focus is on living our lives well with the support of our yoga practice. On keeping the body, heart and mind in a good space. It's why, on my social media, you'll find reminders to breathe and to be in nature, to pause, to rest and to move as you're able to, to contemplate and to reflect. It's why you won't see many photos of asanas - they are important but just a part of the whole.

In recent years I've been prioritising training that allows me to work with the elderly, and with persons of varying abilities and health conditions. I've been focusing on palliative care and how yoga can support in that space."

• In 2023, on the day of my mom's passing, I wrote:

"On this day in 2013 my mother passed on. It was a Wednesday evening; my parent, my sibling and I were with her. There is a measure of grace in being able to be with someone in those moments of transition.

For me there were equal parts of joy and sorrow. Joy because there was release for her, for us. 17 years is a long time to manage the experience of cancer. Sorrow because I know there is much she wanted to do and because I miss her physical presence. I am working on acceptance and surrender as was exemplified by her.

I have shared my belief in yoga as a practice for care, for growth and transformation. This belief is grounded in those years of caretaking.

🪔 Can yoga help us manage our physical body? Yes. Even when the body is compromised.

🪔 Can yoga help us manage our mental state? Yes. There are many tools and practices for us to work with.

🪔 Can yoga help us manage our emotional space? Yes. Our heart, our feelings, our relationships to self and others can be guided by our practice.

🪔 Can yoga help us spiritually? Yes, through grace, through guidance, through our discipline.

I am remembering her today and always. Her hands guide my work."

At this point, both my partner and I have had parents who transitioned in part because of their journey with cancer. In Trinidad and Tobago, according to a recent newspaper article, there has been over 40,000 people diagnosed with cancer over the past two decades. I am thinking about what we can do as individuals and community to help each other manage this disease and these experiences.

This year there are plans for my family friend, Lee Majewski, to launch her Beyond Cancer Programme in Trinidad and Tobago through the wellness arm of the Blue Star. I have been invited to co-facilitate along with my brother and Sridevi. It is an exciting opportunity to serve a population that I have had such a strong connection to because of my family history. I look forward to supporting as I am able to.

I end this post with words from my mother that she wrote on April 2nd, 2011:

"Dear friends, the Universe is full of grace, once you seek, you will find. May you be blessed with a strong desire to know your Divine Self and may you have the blessing of an experienced Guide to point the way. Then, it is all up to you to commit to the discipline of practice, if you want to achieve anything."

peace,