Anna Umemiya, a talent, appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi), which aired on May 29th. Umemiya, who underwent a total right mastectomy for breast cancer last November, looked back on the time when her cancer was discovered.
"Breast cancer is the only thing you can discover yourself," explained Umemiya. "There are various patterns, such as finding a lump while washing your body or finding it during a medical examination. In my case, when I woke up in the morning and got out of the shower and looked at my body, I noticed that my right and left breasts were clearly different in size, and I wondered, 'Huh? Why is one of my breasts so much smaller?' That's what triggered my discovery."
At the time, she was 51 years old, so she suspected it was a symptom of menopause. When she consulted her daughter Momoka, who lives in the United States, she was told, "Mom, send me a photo." Although she was reluctant, she sent the photo. Momoka saw the photo and said, "Mom, something is clearly wrong, so go to the hospital right away!" So she immediately made an appointment to see a doctor.
After an examination, she was diagnosed with a rare cancer, invasive lobular carcinoma. She underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Umemiya's only regret is that he heard the diagnosis results together with his American mother, Claudia. "(Claudia) can be strong-willed, but she didn't seem like the type to be able to solve the big problems that came before her. My father had pretty much done everything for me in life, so I wondered if I could endure it. I was fine, but at the time I thought I should have gone alone," he recalled.
Claudia asked Umemiya, "Why you?" and "I wish it was me who had cancer," to which Umemiya replied, "No, no, I don't think a mother like me could handle it. It would be difficult for everyone around her (laughs)."
Meanwhile, Momoka has been crying almost every day since the day she was told, "Mom, you should go to the hospital right away." Umemiya said, "(Momoka) was just getting on track to be able to work properly and take care of herself. When she heard that Mommy had cancer, she wanted to come back to Japan, but she was a little hesitant because she had a life in America. But she made up her mind, quit all her work, moved out of her place, and came back to us in August of last year," revealing how reassuring it was for her.
