The new life of the beauty queen after the cancer battle

For a month now, Dang Tran Thuy Tien, 22 years old, a final year student at Foreign Trade University in Thai Nguyen has been busy with contest activities. Miss World Vietnam 2022.

This is not the first time Thuy Tien has attended a beauty contest. Three years ago, while undergoing treatment for breast cancer, she won the Inspiring beauty at the contest “Charming Foreign Trade”, organized by Foreign Trade University. This is also a turning point in the life of a girl from Hai Phong.

Before that, Thuy Tien discovered that there was a small tumor on her chest, so she went to the doctor. The doctor informed her daughter’s parents that she had stage 2A breast cancer (the tumor was more than 2mm in size), but no one told Tien. Once, she asked her mother with a smile, “Do you have cancer?”, silently begging her mother to deny it. But Tien’s mother was silent, tears streaming down her face.

The smile on the girl’s mouth turned to stone. She restrained her voice and told her mother, “Are you okay?”, then rushed into the bathroom, letting the water pour down from the top of her head. “I thought I was falling into a bottomless abyss,” Thuy Tien recalled.

In the days that followed, the girl realized that her biggest fear was not her own loss, but what her family would be like if she was no longer in the world. “I really want to live, I want to take care of my parents, I want to see the world,” Thuy Tien thought and decided to save her studies and go into surgery to remove the tumor. Sure, during the treatment of hair loss, she actively shaved her head.

Less than 19 years old, Thuy Tien had to remove half of her left breast and cut out the lymph nodes in her armpit. When she woke up, she saw that her chest was completely sunken, her armpits were sunken like a deep pit. From the mouth of the long wound, the doctor plugged a drainage tube to drain fluid from the body. The female patient had to carry a drainage vessel dangling from her body for 10 days. Every time I raise my arm to clean, the wound is tight and painful like it’s about to tear. But in those days, Tien saw patient K’s colon had to wear a colostomy, patient K’s stomach hurt so much that he couldn’t sit up, a breast patient never had family members to visit, she knew she was still lucky. lucky.

Every day, parents alternately take leave from work, from Hai Phong to Hanoi to take care of Tien. They bring coconut water, chicken, porridge, crab… to nourish their daughter. A week later, when she learned of the disease, Tien gained two kilograms, and her parents lost weight, thick wrinkles around the corners of their eyes.

“As long as there is love from parents, all storms will calm down,” she thought, and the pain from surgery calmed down. Parents are also the motivation for Tien to enter the course of 4 doses of red chemotherapy, 12 doses of white chemotherapy combined with 18 shots of targeted drugs and 24 rounds of radiation therapy. The total cost of treatment is 900 million VND, not including travel expenses, meals…

Tien knows, many cancer patients like her have to give up treatment because they don’t have money, but parents don’t let that misfortune happen to their children. All other non-family priorities must be cut. Tien’s father stopped smoking, his younger brother had to stop playing basketball.

At the end of July 2019, Thuy Tien entered the first round of chemical nasal infusion. She didn’t eat anything all day, but her stomach was tight and vomiting. Headache, dizziness, fatigue, but the doctor told not to lose weight during the treatment, Tien tried to swallow the bowl of porridge. When she was awake, she vomited again, rinsed her mouth again, tried to swallow, vomited again… When she was awake, she went to talk to other patient K, sharing food with them. “I realize that what the patient needs is not only money and material things, but the most important thing is sharing and care,” Tien said.

At that time, on the hospital bed, Thuy Tien watched live Luong Thuy Linha girl of the same age, from the same university, was crowned at the contest Miss World Vietnam. At that time, she wished to once participate in a beauty contest, to inspire positive life to people in the same situation as herself.

The opportunity came to Tien when Foreign Trade University held a beauty contest. The 1m70-tall girl decided to register to attend, even though her parents objected. “Actually, I also hope to win something, a bonus to support the family’s treatment costs,” she said honestly.

With a million dong in savings, Thuy Tien alone took a bus to Hanoi to take the exam. She went to the student market to rent ao dai for 600 thousand dong, save 400 thousand for makeup.

Before the contest, she shared on social networks a bald photo with her medical condition and affirmed “I am the most beautiful when I am confident”. After that line of status, Thuy Tien suddenly became famous. Contrary to the worries of Tien’s parents, everyone sympathizes and admires the strong vitality of the female student at Foreign Trade University.

Not only won the inspirational beauty award, a pharmaceutical company decided to finance the entire treatment cost. On the afternoon of November 17, 2019, while participating in the challenges of the contest Charming Foreign TradeThuy Tien suddenly received a letter from the Prime Minister encouraging her by her extraordinary will to live with breast cancer.

“The competition erased in me and my family the fear and sadness caused by cancer. At that time, I realized that cancer turned out to be not the door to death, it can be cured and inspired to live a positive life. to everyone,” she said.

At the beginning of 2020, the girl received cancer treatment while going back to school with the 2nd year students. At the end of the year, Thuy Tien complete treatment regimen at K hospital, just follow-up for 5 years.

The healing process is over, but every weekend, Thuy Tien goes to K hospital to visit, talk, and give gifts to pediatric patients and cancer patients. Recently, she has also collaborated with a number of programs to support children with cancer. The female student often shares her healthy living habits and adheres to her treatment regimen on her personal page in the hope that patients like her can refer to it and stay healthy.

“After the cancer event, I have a more multi-dimensional view of life, more empathy for people in difficulty, and the opportunity to meet talented and compassionate people. I know, my mission is not encapsulated in the family, but also brings joy to the less fortunate in society,” she said.

Thuy Tien said, if she can enter the final round of the contest, Miss World Vietnam 2022, To raise her voice, she will say: “For me, Miss World Vietnam is not just a contest, but it shows my belief in winning myself, realizing my desire, and I also want to spread my spirit. that god to everyone”.

Pham Nga