Cape Town – Content creator and food enthusiast Nara Smith has revealed that her daughter, Whimsy, was diagnosed with cancer late last year, explaining that the family’s ordeal is the reason behind her reduced presence on social media.
In a two-minute and 37-second video shared on 1 July, the mother of four opened up about her daughter’s diagnosis and the difficult months that followed.
“There’s no easy way to say this or to talk about any of this, but late last year our daughter Whimsy got diagnosed with cancer,” Smith said.
She explained that the family sought medical attention after noticing something concerning about Whimsy, recalling that she immediately feared the worst.
“When we saw something suspicious on her we took her to the ER and they didn’t quite know what to make of it. So, when we took her to our paediatrician, I just remember him going really quiet and calm and my heart dropped in that moment,” she said.
“I don’t know whether it was my gut telling me something or just a mum’s intuition, but the first thing that I felt was [that] she has cancer.”
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Smith said their paediatrician referred them to a children’s hospital for further assessment, where a series of X-rays, ultrasounds and a biopsy confirmed the diagnosis.
“He calmly told us to take her to the closest children’s hospital and have them evaluate her further. After a lot of X-rays, ultrasounds, and finally a biopsy, they immediately called us and said that she had cancer. They told us it had spread and that she needs to come start chemotherapy treatment immediately,” she said.
Reflecting on the experience, Smith said she found comfort through online forums, social media and conversations with other parents and families at the hospital.
“Throughout all of this, I’ve been on a plethora of forums, social media [and] also talked to parents and family in the hospital, and all of that combined really brought me a lot of comfort,” she said.
Smith said she decided to share her family’s journey in the hope of offering comfort to others facing similar circumstances and encouraging people not to ignore potential health concerns.
“We wanted to share this to hopefully bring someone else that comfort or even incentivise you to go get something checked out that you’ve been avoiding,” she said.
“I hope that by sharing this I can bring someone else a little bit of comfort and make you feel less alone in your journey.”
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Picture: Instagram/ Nara Smith
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Compiled by Glaan Sibuyi
