Akiko Nishina appears on "Tetsuko's Room" broadcast on August 22nd, overcoming four bouts of cancer

72-year-old actress Akiko Nishina appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on August 22nd. She spoke about her four cancer experiences.

The first time was when she was 38 years old. Her husband at the time, Hiroki Matsukata, was on the other side of the world working on a fishing program and was unable to contact him, so she was told the news alone. She was ignorant about cancer and was carefree, so she thought they could just have surgery to remove the affected area, but when the doctor told her that she would be hospitalized for about six months at most, she realized the seriousness of the situation. At the time, her children were 8 and 6 years old. All she could think about were their school, uniforms, and homework.

He divorced at age 45. At age 46, a submucosal tumor he had previously had in his stomach became malignant, and he had one-third of his stomach and his spleen removed. At age 55, he suffered from appendicitis and small intestine cancer. At age 62, he had colon cancer. "All of the surgery was done by laparotomy," he said. He has scars from the laparotomy that extend from his chest to his abdomen. His children have gotten used to it, and even joke, "What? Again? Why don't you just zip it up already?"

Looking back, he says that he was able to overcome serious illnesses so many times because "each time, I was given excellent care by wonderful medical institutions, doctors, and other medical professionals. I was also very fortunate in many ways, such as the timing and the location of the cancer. I think I was a very lucky cancer patient."

However, about 10 years ago, when I was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 62, I sat in the dimly lit post-surgery recovery room listening to the sound of my monitor and thought to God, "Can't you just stop already?!" Based on my experience, I call for cancer screening in lectures. "Once you get the disease, it becomes treatment, right? But if you get tested before treatment, it reduces all the risks, including the risk to your body, the cost, and the time, so please get tested once a year, on some special day," I urge.

"After I spoke (at a lecture), people came to visit me in my dressing room and asked me how I could be so cheerful, but there's nothing you can do about it now, so it's best to try not to worry and stay cheerful, in order to boost your immunity."

Her eldest son is 43 this year, and her eldest daughter is 41. "These days, my children are very reliable and cover for me. My son seems to be more mischievous, but he's kind to his mother. My daughter is a bit harsher because she's the same gender. She's strict with me in the way she speaks," she said. Unexpected things happen in life, but she reflected, "Personally, I think getting sick was the worst thing I never expected."