Avalanche

There’s a chill. Can you feel it?

Somewhere north, a small fracture A crack in the ice It will gain momentum Change There’s a time to listen, and a time to speak A time for patience, a time to act A time for ignorance, a time to learn A time for stillness, a time for change Avalanche

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NO ZERO PERCENT Marco Carmignan

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THE HUNT Patrick Riley

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STANDING ON HER OWN TWO FEET Henrik Røyne

POWER BY PROXY Elke Numeyer - Windshuttle

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Marcel Top

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IN ABSENTIA Adrian Francis

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A TINY MOVEMENT Jelle de Ru

A FAMILY BY CHOICE Matilda Spetz

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A DOG’S LIFE Manuel Seoane

NO ZERO PERCENT Woods and green grasslands hold up grey and rainy clouds.

This is the landscape around Vejen, a small town with just under 10,000 inhabitants, in South Denmark. In a red brick house by a dairy store lives Nisu, a young girl from Hong Kong whose story is far from common. Doctors told Nisu she had a zero percent chance to have a child after being diagnosed with cancer. Now, she is raising her 10 months old son, Mathias. “My son is truly a miracle. He’s against all the odds.”

Marco Carmignan

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The Inconvenient Truth

Nisu is 26 and has lived in Denmark for four years. She is married with Lars, a 31 year old man from Vejen. Nisu and Lars met each other on Facebook ten years ago when they quickly became friends and started to chat. “After my High School graduation in 2011, I decided to come to Denmark to visit Lars. By then a romantic relationship started”, she says smiling.

In September 2014, Nisu was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer for women globally and it ranks 18th in the most common cancers over all. In 2018 there were nearly 300,000 new cases according to the World Cancer Research Fund, and the World Health Organisation’s cancer rate statistics depict that approximately thirty percent of all cancer diagnoses occur in Denmark. “At the beginning it was just a cyst. A month later I went for a check and from the scan, doctors discovered a lot of big bubbles inside and they said it was normal; just water and blood, but apparently it was not. Very soon I started having pain and I went to a bigger hospital to have more detailed checks.

Then, a doctor called me and said I had a very big tumour and I must come to the hospital the day after to be operated” Nisu remembers. The doctors would have removed both her ovaries, but Nisu and Lars asked to remove just the right one which had the tumour since they wished to have a baby one day. This meant there was a risk the cancer could return.

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“I was so devastated.

We thought it was over.

Because of that, I had to cancelled the flights and stay for chemotherapy. I started chemotherapy in February 2015 and then the real hell started.”

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The Poison

The operation was successful, but during the recovery at the hospital Nisu contracted an infection. Moreover, the hospital staff left her belly open for ten days. It seemed there was no appropriate medicine to help her any further. Nonetheless, Nisu returned home clear of cancer in her body.

Nisu and Lars planned to go to Hong Kong for Lunar New Year but before they departed, the cancer had returned.

“I was so devastated. We thought it was over. Because of that, I had to cancelled the flights and stay for chemotherapy. I started chemotherapy in February 2015 and then the real hell started” she recalls.

During chemotherapy Nisu became very weak. “I could only lie in bed, get the

drops of chemo, go to pee, vomit and go back to bed again. Just repeating the same thing all day. I don’t remember so much of that period. I was so weak that I could not even focus on the TV. The more drops of chemo I took, worse the side effects got. I’ve just been vomiting all the time, like every ten minutes, even though I haven’t eaten anything ” She continues.

Thankfully, due to the tumour growing rapidly over a short period of time, the chemo was successful. Nisu also used Chinese herbal medicine sent from her mother as a supplement to bear the side effects of chemotherapy. Based on the principle that cancer cells reproduce much faster than normal cells, the substances used for these treatments interfere with the

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mechanisms related to cell replication, killing them during this process (cytotoxic action). The effect of chemotherapy, therefore, is felt especially on tumours that grow quickly. This results in common side effects such as hair loss, anemia, fatigue, nausea, infections, bruising, and even cognitive difficulties. “Chemotherapy is poison! It’s really pure poison that kill something bad in your body”, Lars shouts.

“Chemotherapy is poison!

It’s really pure poison that kill something bad in your body.”

The Never-Ending Fight

Chemotherapy ended in early 2015, but Nisu had a second operation after the chemotherapy to take away all the dead cancer cells. “We realised we love each other and in June 2015 we married. But unfortunately, because of the 24 years old law - which manage the family reunification in Denmark - my visa was rejected since I was only 23. As a consequence, I had to leave Denmark within two weeks while I was still very weak. One week after I arrived to Hong Kong I discovered I had contracted chickenpox during the flight due to my very weak immune system. I was isolated in the hospital for one week again”, she explains. After leaving the hospital in Hong Kong she found a job as a hotel pastry chef; “I didn’t want

to stay at home and do nothing” Nisu claims, but soon after she experienced a nosebleed at work. “It was then that I realised I was forcing myself, and how weak my body was; I should have taken more rest.”

Naturaly, Nisu resigned. After resting for some months at her mother’s, she was finally granted a visa to live in Denmark with Lars.

The miracle

Nisu felt very sad after receiving the notice she would not have a child anymore.

She searched online looking for any case of a woman that had cancer and chemotherapy who had been able to conceive.

Disappointingly, there were few cases. De-

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termined to find a success story, Nisu kept looking. “Finally, I found one. A woman from England who had two children after the chemotherapy. She also had cancer at a very early age. So, I contacted her and asked a little bit about her. It was to bring me hope. Then I thought it’s not zero percent, it’s not absolute. I don’t want to give up.” Nisu and Lars decided to try for children.

After applying for University two years later, something miraculous happened.

Not only was she pregnant, but she was already in her fifth month. “I didn’t believe it. He was a miracle”, she exclaims describing her ten-month old son Mathias, who is in perfect health, with endless energy and curiosity.

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The important thing

Cancer changes lives, for both those who are suffering and for those who witness their loved ones in pain. “What I learnt from cancer is that everybody at a certain point can have a rough time. Everybody can suffer from something even though you can’t see it or they don’t talk about it. So, don’t complain, don’t criticise and don’t judge, because you will never know what that person bears in that moment.”

Nisu was never afraid of death during her illness but she was very depressed and thought her suffering was a punishment.

Not associating with any religion, both she and Lars believe that everyone makes their own destiny. “Of course, I believe there’s something above us but I don’t believe in a specific God” she admits. For her, most of the people who have cancer fight for their own life; for survival. “For me it was different. I fought cancer to have my baby!” She shouts.

Nisu succeeded. Learning from Nisu, fighting cancer is an act of love. Love for others, love for yourself, love for life. She demonstrates the courage love requires, and the importance to find a reason, and never let it go. “Love is unconditional. I understood love thanks to Lars and Mathias” Nisu says with eyes full of tears. “During my sickness I understood that Lars loves me unconditionally and because of that he lost his job. He was always by me, taking care of me. And even if my body has changed, my hair loss, my scar, he still loves me unconditionally. And then when I had Mathias I understood how to have this unconditional love to others as well.

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Because when you became a mother your child is everything to you”.

Today, Nisu dreams to open her own bakery and continue toward accomplishing the goals she set for her life.

“Love is unconditional. I understood love thanks to Lars and Mathias.”

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There’s a chill. Can you feel it?

MANUEL

MARCO

ADRIAN

PATRICK

ELKE

MARCEL

JELLE

MATILDA

HENRIK