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Nichole Smart, a registered midwife, spent her career teaching women the importance of breast self-examinations. "Early detection saves lives," she would say. Yet, when a lump appeared in her own breast in 2013, she hesitated.

"I had just finished a Pap smear clinic in Kingston, 15 women came in that day, and out of the fifteen, only five of them did the breast exam," Smart recalled.

"I was talking to a colleague after, and I said, 'I don't know why women don't examine their breasts.' And she said, 'True, but you know, we fi do it too.' And mi tell her straight, 'No man, mi good.'"

That evening, after getting out of the shower, an inner voice nudged her. "It's like something whisper, 'Examine the breast.' Mi shrug it off, but before mi could put on mi clothes, it come again," Smart related.

This time she yielded. Her examination of the left breast turned up nothing suspicious. However, when she examined her right breast, she felt a lump.

"Mi pause and say to miself, 'Alright, is hormones, period soon come'," said Smart who was 39 at the time.

Months passed but the lump stayed. She then decided to ask a gynaecologist with whom she worked to check it out.

"When mi go in his office, him look up and say, 'You going to see Dr. Baker tomorrow.' Mi said, 'Who is Dr. Baker?' Him say, 'A surgeon.'"

An ultrasound and biopsy followed. Denial gripped her.

"When the results came back, the office called me before the two weeks passed. Mi tell the secretary, 'Mi have appointment next Monday, mi will come then.' She said, 'Miss Smart, if him seh come, you must come.' Mi still said no."

When she finally went, the diagnosis hit like a blow. Smart was told she had breast cancer. She was not optimistic.

"As far as I know you have cancer, you're dead," she said.

"In mind, if I was ever going to have cancer, and I've said that to my friends over and over, I would have had a brain tumour because I had severe migraine headaches. So in my mind, if there was ever going to be anything like that in me, it would have been my head."

Reality sank further with the need for a mastectomy.

"Mi stop breathe," she said, having been told about the far-reaching intervention that was required. "Two things mi loved 'bout miself - mi breasts and mi hair. I always thought I had sexy breasts. Mi used to look inna di mirror and say, 'Bwoy, Nichole, yuh have nice breasts' So when him seh mi haffi tek off mi breast, mi couldn't absorb it. I told him, 'I wouldn't have a love life again because there's no way you can have a love life without breasts.'"

For weeks, she hid her diagnosis, smiling at work while losing the battle inside. She eventually told her uncle, who, broke the news to the family.

"Mi can still hear mi son screaming. That gut-wrenching cry, even now mi can hear it." -

Surgery on June 24, 2013, removed her breast tissue, replaced with implants. Recovery was gruelling but she had support from her family, including her brother, son and a best friend.

"I had drains under both arms, and mi son used to empty them. I was staying at my younger brother who had me on a strict diet. My girlfriend took bus from Angels in Spanish Town come Stony Hill every day to bathe mi. The support was excellent," Smart said.

Chemotherapy was terrible.

"Mi vomit, mi weak, mi couldn't eat. They said mi might lose mi hair. Mi pray say mi wouldn't, but one morning mi in the shower and mi notice every little hair, underarm, pubic, everything just dropping out like mi a chicken," Smart recalled.

Her son became her lifeline.

"Mi son was 14, and mi couldn't let him see mi give up. Mi always tell people, if it wasn't for mi son, mi wouldn't have made it. He was mi lifeline," she said.

Colleagues helped, delivering green juice and covering her work. Loved ones encouraged her beauty, even without her wig. "One friend said, 'You look cute without it.' That gave me courage. Sadly he died of colon cancer in 2017."

A year prior, she lost her son, who had bravely battled health issues. And as if her burdens were not heavy enough, she has another major health setback with cause her to do a hysterectomy in 2022. Late 2023, severe pain revealed metastasis to bones.

"I made sure tell everybody that I'm not doing chemo again and they put mi pon pills and I later found out it's a form of chemo... If you see me, you wouldn't know. It's just that I'm always tired," Smart said.

She said she has learned to hold on to faith. "One of the important things for me, though, is I've developed faith. I mean, I was always a churchgoer then, but through especially this new phase, mi hold on to God," she said.

Her advice to other women to take charge of their health and to be defeated by breast cancer.

"Breast cancer is not a death sentence. Talk about it. Don't keep silent. Find at least one or two people you can confide in. Real friends will help you through, and people will recommend things that you can try, and sometimes it will work," she said.