“I was stressed out for two and a half to three months. I knew I had cancer in my body," says Sabelo Gumede.
Earlier this month, South African actor Sabelo Gumede shared that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 choriocarcinoma cancer.
His announcement came with the launch of a crowdfunding campaign.
“I’m shocked and really pleasantly surprised, a month after setting it up and the amount that I’ve got… I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, I thought it was just gonna sit there in the background,” Gumede told The Citizen.
Gumede, who has appeared on Scandal and various popular TV ads, was diagnosed with stage 3 choriocarcinoma earlier this year.
Choriocarcinoma is a rare and aggressive cancer that typically originates in the testicles of males but can also appear in other locations, like the lungs or the anatomical space in the back of the abdomen, often as a metastasis from a primary testicular tumour.
The actor said the cancer had spread through his lymph nodes to his neck, stomach, lungs, spine and diaphragm.
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The sense of community
Since launching his crowdfunding campaign, the actor says he’s received overwhelming support. A friend advised him to set up a public funding initiative, as he wanted to send him money.
“He said a GoFundMe might just be helpful.”
“A lot of people know that I’m an actor, so they understand that if I’m not working, I’m not getting paid.”
Since his medical aid covers his medical bills, he needs assistance with day-to-day expenses.
He shares that he has gotten the best medical treatment during this time.
“It’s very premium, I think, because I’ve never used it, so I don’t know if there’s more premium than this, but it feels to me that I’m getting the very best treatment out there.”
He said before he publicly announced his diagnosis, only his friends and family knew, and since setting up the crowdfunding, more people have offered to help.
“A lot more people reached out. Every day when I wake up, there’s a new surprise, every day. The amount…people really care and they try. Some people do it because they’ve met me a couple of times…people I’ve never met who’ve just seen some of my work.”
“That community is so strong…people are so lovely, man, all the time like it’s insane. It feels like a community or an army helping me fight this thing every day. Even though it’s quite physical, a lot of it is also mental,” he says.
Gumede shares how his mental state affects how he fights the disease.
“A lot of my oncologists were explaining that ‘you need to keep a positive attitude’ and having such a community that literally checks on me every day, [helps].”
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Changing his lifestyle
He says part of his changes include not drinking ordinary 100% fruit juice. “I’m opting for more like rugani juice, that’s even got like a five-day shelf life, as opposed to the normal juice that you drink.”
He has completely stopped eating things like pap, bread and traditional food, which he previously enjoyed.
“Like chemo treatment is just a treatment that happens, after the treatment everything happens at home, and it’s basically all you and how you act, your lifestyle…and those are the things that also help the therapy fight off the cancer.”
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The stressful times
Before the diagnosis, Gumede was still working as an actor.
“At the beginning, I was stressed out for two and a half to three months. I knew I had cancer in my body, but I didn’t know what kind of cancer I had.”
“That little grey area of not knowing, I tried my best to keep positive…and I thought the doctors made a mistake and some of these tests actually don’t have cancer…and I was acting like I don’t have cancer, I’m still kind of doing that now,” he shares.
He says he tries to be considerate of doctors’ orders, but “I’m trying my best to live my best normal life without thinking about it too much.”
As recent as this past weekend, he was attending the Basha Uhuru music festival at Constitution Hill in Joburg to support his girlfriend, DJ MaKhumalo.
“I was there to support her on Saturday. I try my best to support her at her gigs, that also really keeps me going.”
“After the official diagnosis, I was stuck in depression, for about a week or two…because it was scary, it was scary to know what I have, it was scary to find out the stage that it’s at… I also found out that cancer doesn’t have a cure.”
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Impact of chemotherapy
He shares that he was also anxious about whether he would be covered by his medical aid, which he was. Soon after that, he started chemotherapy.
“And then I started feeling a little bit better, but after the first week of chemo, I was then in a depressive state again because the pain, once you start treating it, it becomes such a sneaky little disease, it just sits there and nothing really happens except throwing up after eating, being tired all the time,” he says.
“Chemo affects your white blood cells; the treatment is a very dangerous poison for your body, but it’s also very essential when you have cancer.”
Gumede say being extraordinarily tired and dealing with intense migraines were some of the side effects he contended with in the beginning.
“Those effects are very hectic.”
Because of the chemotherapy, which also affects the immune system, what one eats becomes more crucial.
To help manage his side effects, Gumede has received Palliative care while going through chemotherapy.
This type of care is focused on providing relief from symptoms such as pain, depression, nausea, and shortness of breath.
The goal is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and the family.
According to the Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa), studies confirm that patients who receive both Palliative Care, as well as treatment aimed against the cancer, have a better quality of life and mood than those who don’t receive Palliative Care at all.
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Looking ahead
“I’m on stage three now, and I’m supposed to be dropping if everything goes well…my complete round of treatment is gonna be finished in October and then I can test and I’ll be able to see how much of the cancer I still have and how much I still need to do.
“If I’m really fortunate, the treatment would’ve been so hectic that the cancer is on like a very, very low number.”
He isn’t sure about what will happen after October if the Cancer be decreased in his body.
“I do know that you sort of go through a rehabilitation sort of thing even though you have beaten the cancer…or I don’t beat the cancer it’s still stage three and I have to almost restart the treatment and they’re gonna make the treatment even stronger, if that’s the case.”
He says the thought of not getting rid of the cancer is a scary one, but the encouragement and support from people give him confidence that he’s going to beat the disease.
“Having a sense of community, with people checking on me every day, it makes me think that I’m gonna beat this thing, it makes me feel confident that I’m currently beating this thing,” he says with conviction.
“I didn’t know that I needed this community until I had this community.”
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