TWENTY years ago, President Christine Carla Kangaloo came face to face with her mortality in the form of breast cancer.

And although getting rid of the invasive and unwelcome visitor came with a myriad of challenges, it also taught her life lessons she might not have learned otherwise.

“It did change my life," she said. "I would say it has strengthened me and made me deeply appreciative of life.

“It showed me that there was strength I had that I didn't know I had; it taught me resilience; it taught me to lean on other people,” which can sometimes be difficult for women who are not used to allowing other people to see their susceptibility.

“I don't like being vulnerable, and I don't like people seeing me vulnerable. I grew up like a little tomboy with my brothers, and having gone through what I did, I realised it's okay to be vulnerable.

“So I was able to rely on people, and let those close to me see that I wasn't okay all the time, and I opened myself up to the love they were all willing to give me.

"But those were some difficult lessons,” Kangaloo said in an interview with Newsday at President's House on October 8.

In March 2004, at 42, Kangaloo was diagnosed with Stage 2 receptor positive cancer – the type that allows cancer cells to use the hormone oestrogen to grow.

“I actually felt the lump in my breast and I immediately went to my ob/gyn and she was concerned, so she sent me to do a biopsy.”

The president said even while she was waiting for the report, she had a nagging feeling she was not going to be happy with the results.

“So when I received the news, I wasn't as shocked as I would have ordinarily have been.”

Immediately, she said, she and her husband, fellow attorney Kerwyn Garcia, asked the doctor about her treatment options and started to map out a plan of action.

“I didn't react in any sort of emotional way,” but her first thought was about letting her mother know what was happening.

Then a government senator and a minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, she reported to Parliament for duty, in spite of everything that was going on.

“I remember having to go to the Senate that day, but I needed to speak to my mother and tell her in person. I knew I needed to do it that day."

She asked permission of then leader of government business Dr Lenny Saith to leave early.

“He said ‘yes,’ and I headed straight down to San Fernando to meet with my mother.”

It was a difficult conversation to have, considering her mother had lost her younger daughter, 29-year-old Caryl, in a car crash in 1993.

“My mother is very stoic, but you could see the worry and emotion on her face when I told her.”

She then told her brothers about her diagnosis.

Kangaloo had a lumpectomy, followed by four rounds of chemotherapy, then radiation. Through it all, she said, her family and friends stayed by her side.

“I remember all my brothers and my husband gathering around me just as I was going into surgery and were waiting for me when I came out. They were all there, except one brother who staye