When Debbi Simon speaks about the outpouring of love she received from friends, family, and strangers during her lymphoma treatment she cries.
When Debbi Simon speaks about the outpouring of love she received from friends, family, and strangers during her lymphoma treatment she cries.
Debbi tearfully recalls the acts of kindness that still continue to shock her. A relative’s neighbour, a stranger to Debbi, designed flower pots for her during that summer of chemotherapy in 2012. Another friend baked a batch of muffins for her every week.
Those close to Debbi sent letters, messages, and copious amounts of food as expressions of their love and support. “Each (act) was like a chemotherapy treatment without the pain,” she says.
Debbi’s niece, Danielle Lebowitz, was another relative who did what she could to support “Auntie Debbi”. It was Danielle’s Bat Mitzvah in March 2012 and she decided to donate the $613 she received in gifts to Lymphoma Canada in honour of her great-aunt.
“We’ve always been a close family and this just shows the feelings that we have. It’s unbelievable to me, another thing that makes me feel so special and loved.”
In May 2012, Debbi was diagnosed with aggressive B-cell lymphoma. Before the shock of diagnosis, Debbi was feeling stomach flu symptoms. After numerous visits to the doctor, blood work finally revealed low hemoglobin levels. A series of tests followed “and they found it…that it was lymphoma,” Debbi says.
Doctors prescribed her with six rounds of chemotherapy treatment, and even with this treatment, only gave her 20 per cent chance of survival. It wasn’t an easy time for Debbi, but the help she received from her support team mitigated some of the pain she says.
Midway through treatment, a whole battery of tests revealed that Debbi’s lymphoma was 50 per cent gone and that she was responding very well to treatment.
“That was the first time I saw my doctor smile. Before that, he scared me because he was so somber and serious. I said to him, ‘I didn’t know you could smile’. He said, ‘I didn’t have anything to smile about before.’” As of September 21, 2013 Debbi has been cancer free.
“It was a big learning experience. In that darkest cloud came such blessings, such wonderful things that you probably would never experience or know unless you were going through this horrific test,” Debbi says.
Debbi learned about the goodness of people and the importance of support. Acts of kindness and love, whether from strangers or loved ones, are part of the “treatment” needed to get through such challenging ordeals. People can really surprise you and so can the effects of their thoughtful gestures. “It’s a terrible way to learn it but it’s a wonderful life lesson.”
