How art helped heal a breast cancer survivor hit hard by chemotherapy side effects
Battling breast cancer and chemotherapy side effects, Lipi Srivastava discovered a talent for art that proved to be an effective therapy
When she felt the small growth below her collarbone, Lipi Srivastava instantly knew something was amiss.
The now 50-year-old Hong Kong HR professional and mother of two quickly booked an appointment with an oncologist and had a biopsy. It confirmed that she had stage 1 high-grade breast cancer.
Srivastava remembers feeling numb upon hearing the diagnosis: “All I could think [about] was how I was going to tell my kids and my parents. How would they react?”
That was in August 2021. At her husband’s urging, she began to focus on fighting the cancer. She had surgery within 10 days of the diagnosis and was back to work after two weeks. Six rounds of chemotherapy followed, from September to December 2021.
In April 2022, she underwent preventive surgery to remove her ovaries and Fallopian tubes.
