This girl's story will is nothing short of inspiration.
She didn't think much of it. Life at the time was all about doing what she loved most; dancing, travelling, eating and hanging out with her friends.
It wasn't until two weeks later when she noticed that the bump had continued to grow bigger. Painless as it were, it had already covered most of her face and Sasha's parents started asking questions.
That trip to the hospital was to change their lives forever.
The doctors were able to detect the cancer at the beginning and started her chemotherapy. Unfortunately, she was misdiagnosed with a different type of cancer.
"Since it was not the right chemo, I started getting side effects. My mom was worried because, instead of me getting better, I was getting worse..." Sasha recalls.
Her father was advised to get a second opinion and he did.
A decision that began her road to healing.
"My father was advised to get a second opinion. That is when they found out what I had. It's called Burkitt's Lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the lymph nodes. Mine was affecting my face..."
In a bid to save Sasha's eyesight and jaw as the cancer had advanced quite quickly and affected the areas, she was immediately enrolled for chemotherapy for the second time. This round, she finished but not without a fight.
"At first it wasn't so bad, I vomited. But as we were progressing it got really hard and really painful... I was ready to give up. A woman who was sleeping next to me told me that I was young, that I had to live and to not give up. She was in with breast cancer but her chemo was not as intense as mine. She died after only doing two sessions."
Sasha then breaks into details of a dark time when she fell into depression. In her young eyes, death was near. The doctors decided to isolate her so that the she didn't interact with anyone after seeing her reaction to the lady's death. She was put in a private room.
STIGMA
"... Also, some of my family member were told not to never come and visit. They didn't understand what cancer is so they kept saying that she had HIV/AIDS.'"
A strong and brave Sasha survived through the chemotherapy. She had made it and was on her way to radiotherapy.
Still, she had to go through counselling for something else that had happened to her during the chemo sessions.
Sasha had been raped.
In honor of Breast Cancer month, Pulse Live Kenya is doing a three piece series on the story of this beautiful 24 year old who survived cancer at a tender age and lived many years more to share the tale of a brutal battle well won.
She tells the story below.