hi I'm Annette Reilly I'm a Canadian actor and filmmaker probably best known
for my role as Diana Spellman on the chilling Adventures of Sabrina I was
diagnosed with stage 3b colon cancer at the age of 30 being a storyteller why
don't I start from the beginning my story begins in 2010 my daughter was
born I had just discovered directing film and had was in the middle of making
my first film I had been directing theatre for several years my career path
was chugging along and I was starting a family then I started having all these
weird symptoms it started with severe anemia that was presenting in the form
of pica I had had great iron level through my entire life all of a sudden
I'm having these symptoms I was told by my doctor at the time that I was OCD and
she tried to put me on antidepressants I was humiliated and didn't want to go
back to her so I ignored the fact that I had a low-grade fever for several months
and soon enough blood started appearing in my stool then came the intestinal
cramping finally I received a blood test and I was so severely anemic my
haemoglobin had dropped down to very very low levels so low that I should
have been given a transfusion but instead I was told to take a bunch of
iron supplements and come back in three months I decided to leave my doctor at
that point and find a second opinion and thank goodness I did I found a wonderful
doctor but even she and the the team that came
together was a little bit bit put off course by my age and my gender and my
lack of family history and they thought it was other things after months of
being in and out of the ER waiting for specialists appointments calling doctors
constantly to try to push up my appointments I finally had an endoscopy
and they found that I did not have a stomach ulcer and the only other
explanation could have been the thing that I had every
all symptom before so eventually a couple months after that went in for a
colonoscopy sure enough I was diagnosed with colon cancer I was in for surgery
by December 6th and had fortunately been transferred to this other colorectal
surgeon dr. Eleanor vicious who is just amazing and she could do the surgery
laparoscopically which was invaluable to me being a mother a young mother I
remember I had an 18 month old daughter at the time it was a perfect surgery she
did a beautiful job and two months later I started my 12 rounds of chemo lasting
six months that is really a fuzzy period for me there was a lot of ups there was
a lot of downs yeah mostly downs towards the end it's something that I still get
emotional about I never want to relive that and I don't want other people to
live that and Here I am eight years out of treatment I wish I had had somebody
tell me at the beginning of this all that it would be the years after
treatment that would be both incredibly daunting and incredibly fulfilling I
have come out of this a stronger person I have come out of this much more
focused and much less apologetic for who I am I am Who I am and I Know Who I am
because of this experience I know how strong I am and I know what I can
weather but I do wish there had been more warning and more support for the
emotional and the mental illness portion component that came with it yes I have
PTSD I have learned to function through that and with that yes I still have
bitterness because of my situation and being gas-lit by the medical community
for being female and and for being young there was definitely an age and gender
bias that I experienced which I believe was the cause of the delay Here I am on
the other side I'm alive I want to stand up because I'm no longer a patient I'm a
survivor I feel very lucky and honored to be in this place so I'm here to
advocate for myself and I'm here to advocate for you and I am here to join
forces with the people who have been doing that already in Canada and across
the world and I'm here to stand strong and say you are not alone you are not
isolated I know that feeling of isolation you're not alone I'm so glad
that you found the colorectal Canada page I really do hope that it will be a
turning point in the journey that you're currently undertaking we're here for you
as you go through this very difficult time