by Penny Tripolitsioti, family member
My name is Penny, I am the sister of 33-year-old Georgia who passed away in September 2021 from lung cancer. My sister was a rare person in every sense of the word. Optimistic, always smiling, giving, strong and so much more… Her cancer was also rare. She belonged to the 15% of diagnosed cases, since she was a non-smoker and always did her physical workout and ate healthy. Suddenly, in December 2019, she fell ill with fever and a cough that lasted almost 7 months. On the island where we live, at that time there was a pulmonologist (former Head of Pulmonology at a public hospital), who never consulted her to do any further med exams. At the moment there is not even a pulmonologist on the island. We thought of doing the CT scan on our own and that’s how it all started…
It was Maundy Thursday, I remember, of April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic and the travel restriction. “You are immediately leaving for a hospital in Athens!” were the words of the pathologist at the health center of our island. Without knowing what exactly was going on, my sister left with my mother and the next day, the tests done at a private hospital near our house showed everything.
Non-small cell lung cancer with foci in the brain, my mom read to us on the phone. My father and my husband told me they must be wrong, it’s not possible…
I lost the ground under my feet… I was holding my 8 month old son and I thought I was falling with him into the void.
She began a series of treatments – immunotherapy, head radiation, chemotherapy. Yet, it did not go well, not at all.
In December of the same year, 6 months after the diagnosis, the oncologist at the time informed me on the phone that my beloved sister would have only 6 months left to live (according to literature and specialized genetic tests to find the most appropriate immunotherapy regimen).
How can these words fit in the mind? What to think? What to feel?
I had a panic attack, I tried to find the strength to support my parents, I received psychological help to stand up for my baby. The family was divided between Athens, the island and hospitals. We got three different opinions, we were desperately looking for hope, but we knew that my sister was leaving but we didn’t want to believe it. Even if we changed hospitals, oncologists, treatments. I truly wished nothing to be true, that she would have time to live her dreams, that nothing would fade away that bright, full of kindness, smile.
As the days went by, with her consent, a successful and difficult head radiosurgery took place, which until then they had excluded us the option of performing such a surgery in Greece.
But the lung tumor was inoperable.
I didn’t stop for a moment to search, I wanted to buy some more time for her. I didn’t want to lose her, I didn’t want her to let go. She was only 33 years old. I was only 37 years old. She was full of strength, appetite and optimism for life. She was a model patient with cancer, as they said in the hospital, while our mom was always by her side, she never made anyone feel tired.
The six months became almost nine with the new more specialized immunotherapy, with drugs from abroad. But they were not enough for us… She became a godmother, she baptized my son on August 1st, 2021, and on August 30th she was admitted to the hospital again, unable to breathe.
At that moment I didn’t say goodbye. She was under sedation in the Intensive Care Unit after the chest surgeon’s last attempt to open her bronchial tubes to give her breathing. Georgia was born on April 18th, 1987 on the 7th floor of the same hospital, where she died on September 17th, 2021.
She was a strong person, a true fighter for life, she never hid her health problem, she didn’t want others to pity her (she used to say: I have a small cancer, big deal!) and she died with dignity in peace.
My sister’s loss is the biggest lesson for fighting for life. I want to send out the message that cancer is a disease just like any other. It’s not a stigma. No one should be ashamed of any type of cancer.
Through social media I try to raise people’s awareness; young children not to smoke. Let’s prevent diseases. And when these knock on our door, let’s not lock ourselves inside the house. Let’s go out and deal with them face to face. And let’s be optimistic and smiling like her.
“Everything will be okay!” Georgia used to tell me. “And if it’s not okay, remember, it’s not the end…”
September 15th, 2023
