Phillipa Kibugu was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994 while living in the United States of America. This was four years after her sister died of the same disease at a tender age of 38.

"When my sister died, we didn’t know anything about breast cancer then. She was taken to England for treatment but on reaching there, the cancer had spread to the liver. Surgery was done but she died. I was the one taking care of her at the time. It was a trying time,” Kibugu sadly narrates.

I feel that my sister died because she was not knowledgeable about the disease and it was detected in the late stages. "I wanted to know about the disease to be prepared. I was in the US at the time and breast cancer awareness was massive, so I did several tests which always gave negative results until in 1994 when my doctor did a biopsy that the cancer was detected.

It was in its early stages. I was given an option of a single mastectomy. But I opted for a mastectomy for both breasts. I did so for my family. I didn’t want to take any chances,” Kibugu recalls.