Woman Battles Cancer on Talent Trove
Author: Janine Broderick

She was a vivacious young woman, with her whole life ahead
of her. Maha El-Sabaawi never expected to hear her doctor
mutter those four life changing words. "You have breast
cancer."

Maha came to Canada from Saudi Arabia as a child and before
settling in London, Ontario with her family she briefly
stayed in Toronto where she was diagnosed with cancer. For
the past two years, the 26-year-old has been fighting an
arduous battle with not only her health, but also regaining
her life and identity as a young woman who has undergone a
double mastectomy.

During her recovery process, Maha discovered she had a
passion for acting in front of a camera. Tying in her
passion for celebrity gossip, she began creating humorous
parodies of popular television shows and celebrities. After
uploading her videos onto the Internet and creating her own
Web site, celebrityfling, Maha gained a large cult
following of users who were charmed by her vivacious
personality and well-scripted characters.

Maha began posting her media on talent Web sites, and right
away the users embraced her magnetism and recognized her
incredible talent. Maha continues to create and film new
shorts, all the while facing obstacles on the road to
regaining her health. Her illness has not dampened her
positive spirit though. "My attitude is growing stronger
every day. I am unstoppable," she proclaims in her online
biography.

Though Maha has defied the odds, breast cancer is a growing
epidemic. This was once a disease that was thought to only
plague elderly women. However women of any age are at risk
to this type of cancer. Specialists are not positive what
the reasons are for breast cancer forming in certain
people. But, according to the National Cancer Institute,
research has led many to believe there are certain risk
factors that may attribute to developing breast cancer.

Some risk factors include: family history, personal
history, and race. Family history of breast cancer raises
the risk of women in the same family developing the
disease. It has been noted that if there is a family
history of breast cancer with the woman obtaining the
cancer before the age of 40, the woman's family members are
susceptible at a younger age.

When women already have had a previous case of breast
cancer, it is very likely the cancer will reoccur in the
other breast. This is evident in Maha's experience. The
cancer only appeared in one breast and was promptly
removed, however, the cancer reappeared in her other
breast. To reduce the risk of breast cancer reforming, many
women opt to have a mastectomy or a double mastectomy.


About the Author:

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To visit Maha's TalentTrove.com page and view an extensive
selection of her media, go to
http://my.talenttrove.com/celebfling