"Healing Through Yoga" by Lolitta Dandoy

Lolitta Dandoy

"You have breast cancer." That's what the doctor told me on the afternoon of March 2nd, 2010. In an instant my life changed, I had gone from being a perfectly healthy 29-year-old to having this terrible thing inside of me. I didn't react well; in fact I fainted in my fiancé's arms. After the initial shock, I managed to be well while waiting for the prognostic. I worked, laughed, went out, and actually didn't think about it too much. I have always been a very positive and smiley person, so I think this took over the rest.

The results were very long to come because the doctor wanted to send them to the US before he decided anything. Two months later, I finally learned that I was going to have radiotherapy. I was happy about that because it meant that I could still get married that
summer, which was the plan. So we finished our list and sent the invitations to our guests. The next day, I received a phone call telling me that my case was presented to the Royal Victoria tumor board and that some doctors thought it would be better if I underwent chemo, as well. I was devastated and couldn't believe it because everything was ready for my radiotherapy to start.

Two weeks before starting my treatments, someone from CanSupport told me that I could attend free yoga classes at HappyTree Yoga Studio and that it would be good for me. I started right away and I really liked it; it made me feel relaxed and happy. On July 9th, the hardest part of my life started. My first chemo went well, but 2 days later, I started feeling the real effects. That first week was awful. I couldn't eat, I couldn't walk and I couldn't even sit for more than 15 minutes. I was restless and at the same time, I didn't have the energy to do anything. The next week, things started to get better and
I started going back to HappyTree. At first, it really helped me breathe and relax, but there came a point where I became so depressed and negative that I even had a hard time going through the sessions. Fortunately, my family and my fiancé were always there to motivate me and get me to class. I was, and I am, so lucky to have them! From August to October, things were so bad that I had lost my smile and I didn't talk anymore. I, who had always been so positive, became depressed and negative.

Now that I look back, I have to say that yoga helped me a lot. The classes made me feel better and I met wonderful ladies going through similar ordeals as me. They were so nice! I also had the chance to meet Melanie, who gives amazing classes and has the most soothing voice. When I was feeling better, around October, I really started enjoying the classes again and I realized how important they were to me. Whenever I went to yoga, I felt relieved and reenergized. Other than the actual positions, one of the best things I learned was the guided relaxation and the breathing techniques. I finally understood what healing through yoga meant, and that's why I would love to attend one of Nischala Joy
Devi's workshops.

Thank you to CanSupport and HappyTree for bringing yoga into my life.

Lolitta

"There is Always Something You Can Do" - by Rafaelle Roy

Rafaelle, bottom right, at the HappyTree retreat at Sutton

A mammogram done in October 2009 was found to be 'suspicious', and after what
seemed interminable tests, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2010. Then the pre-op tests showed cancer in the other breast, and finally on March 10 of that year, I went through a radical bilateral mastectomy.

I had been on an emotional rollercoaster, going from one shock to yet another shock for five months, and now I had to learn to live with no breasts, the distressing feeling that I was mutilated, unfeminine, un-attractive. I grieved for those breasts like the old friends that they were. I had anxiety attacks, panic attacks, and I became depressed and could only sleep with the help of pills.

My wonderful family doctor sent me to HappyTree Yoga. Yoga? At age 65? I couldn't picture myself doing the contortions that I thought were yoga. I called you, and you were so welcoming, so reassuring.

HappyTree has brought me so much - a family of sorts, with the gentle yoga group, and women who have gone or are going through breast cancer, and sometimes through treatments that seem scarier and harder than double mastectomy. I love the fun and the camaraderie and the support that we bring each other, the tea we share after yoga practice. I am so grateful for every single member of the staff. Everyone is so helpful, whether it's giving me advice on the best posture to help strengthen my arms, stretch my scar, or helping out with alternative moves when I am stuck. “There is always something
that you can do” is a sentence I've heard a lot, and it is becoming ingrained, a new philosophy of life! I love the spiritual aspect that is always present at HappyTree; it opens my heart and connects me to something greater than myself - or breast cancer.

I have learned to accept myself as I am, and I have taken yoga home with me, using the breathing of yoga to fall asleep, or to calm a moment of anxiety - and I can say without exaggerating that I am my old happy self again. I am creative again, painting up a storm, and going to yoga 4 to 5 days in a week - thanks to your generosity, too, letting me help out as a 'karma yogi' in exchange for more classes that I could not otherwise afford. I am healing, and yoga in the happy, relaxed, accepting atmosphere of HappyTree is a huge part of it.

This healing aspect of yoga is what interests me most. Now that I am semi-retired, I am planning to spend 4 to 5 months in my native Haiti, hopefully every couple of years, and I want to do a teacher training to bring yoga relaxation and fun to children in orphanages. The earthquake of January 2010 has left over 300,000 new orphans, children who I know must be traumatized, and emotionally suffering even far more than I was when facing cancer last year. I would love to attend Nischala Joy Devi's workshops, for myself, but also because I need to learn as much as I can so I can bring something home with me that I KNOW to be wonderful. My cousin Françoise, hearing of my plans, said to me just this week: "You could do yoga with women who suffer from breast cancer
too..." Oh yes.

So many thanks my dear Mel, to you, to CanSupport, and HappyTree Yoga!

Namaste,

Rafaelle