Q&A with Maimah Karmo

Maimah Karmo wrote the book Fearless: Awakening to My Life's Purpose Through Breast Cancer. Below is a Q&A with her about the book, her experiences as a refugee and breast cancer survivor, and her charity, Tigerlily Foundation.

Tell us about your book.

Fearless is the story that my heart has carried around for many years, but that I had to live out to this point, in order for me to share with others. It is me, being me, out in the open, authentically, freely, uninhibitedly, unabashedly and for the first time – proudly and unashamed or afraid to show all of me.  It starts with my life in my native country of Liberia, fleeing to America, as a refugee at 15, building my life, then watching it all fall apart after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Initially angry, hurt and scared as I watched my life fall apart, I grew to see that there was a blessing, a hidden gift in the experience; through it all, I re-discovered my strength, myself, and my purpose.  

How do you think your experiences as a refugee can help move ideas and attitudes in our society forward?

I think that Americans take so many blessings for granted. Things like clean, unpolluted running water, lights, order, clean streets, hundreds of cable stations, gadgets, and most importantly freedom. People die in other countries every day that would have lived off the food that is thrown away daily. People in other countries use the same water to drink and cook, that they bathe in. In some countries, you get killed for speaking the truth or disrespecting authority. Women are disrespected and abused. When you come to live in America, especially for me, as a child, I realized that there was a whole world, here, open to me, if I wanted it. I felt like a kid in a candy store, not knowing where to go or what to do first. I could go where I wanted, do what I wanted, say what I wanted and not have to worry about my parents, or I being hurt, or killed because of it. Most of all, as challenging as the debate is with healthcare, there is so much more access to care here than in other countries. In Liberia, I remember walking down the street – almost any street in Monrovia, and seeing people with missing arms, legs, teeth, eyes or mangled torsos; there were so many handicapped people and children – and they couldn’t afford to get the healthcare they needed.They lived like that and begged for a living. That was how they lived. Many were too poor to get an education; and in the U.S., education can be subsidized. I know that there are issues with people living in socio-economic areas where there is less access to healthcare and education, but generally, people in many parts of the world have a fraction of these opportunities and some never do.

You founded the Tigerlily Foundation. Tell us about that.

In 2006, I was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. I was 32 years old and had a 3-year old daughter. When I had initially gone to the doctor, I had been told I was too young to have breast cancer. She performed an aspiration, which was unsuccessful, but she insisted that I come back in six months, during which time the lump doubled in size. I began experiencing overwhelming fatigue and night sweats. When I went back, she insisted on a re-aspiration. I pushed for a biopsy. I was diagnosed the next day, then found out I had aggressive breast cancer.  While undergoing my second round of chemotherapy, I would ask why this was happening to me; I was so afraid of the future. I learned that approximately 11,000 young women get diagnosed and approximately 1,100 of those women die because they are misdiagnosed. I thought of how many other young women were going through what I was experiencing. Then, I stopped asking why and began thinking how, and then what could I do to make a difference, instead of looking to someone else to make a change. I prayed about it and the next day, the vision for Tigerlily Foundation was born, with a mission to educate, advocate for, empower and provide hands-on support to young women – before, during and after breast cancer. What started as a promise and a dream is now a nationwide organization reaching thousands. Tigerlily Foundation provides education and empowerment to young women and their families, we educate healthcare practitioners, provide peer support to newly diagnosed young women, send young women in treatment breast cancer buddy bags, meals, pay their bills, and provide support to young women living with Stage 4 breast cancer. 

I founded Tigerlily because I promised God that I would create something that would make a difference in the landscape of young women and breast cancer, and I promised my daughter that I would live – and I meant not just physically, but be truly alive, thereby giving her a legacy that would never die – hopefully an example of the importance of creating the life you want, pursuing your dreams, embracing life, loving the moment and walking along a path because you believe in something deeply, even if you can’t clearly see the way ahead.

I do this work because young women are needlessly losing their lives to a disease that many of them are not even aware of. Breast cancer floored me, but I made a decision to pick myself up and be even better than before – and I want other young women who are diagnosed to know that they have somewhere to turn, for support, love, empowerment and services. I want them to know that they can survive and thrive. I want young women who have not been diagnosed to know that they have a right to life and that they need to exercise their personal power and become their own best advocates.

What's the one thing you'd want someone recently diagnosed with breast cancer to know immediately?

That being diagnosed with breast cancer is not a death sentence; and that you are not alone. Those two things are the most fearful feelings. There are so many women, more than 250,000 diagnosed annually, who survive and thrive after breast cancer. That means that you have thousands of other women who have walked the path before you and who can support, empower and inspire you. What breast cancer did for me was put my life in perspective. It gave me a wake-up call, and helped me to see that I was and we are all here temporarily. So I needed to own my life and find my purpose, so that I would live the rest of my life with meaning. With this in mind, I focused my energy and fears into making my life count – that is what we all want at the end of the day to make a difference, love a lot and life like there is no tomorrow. What was interesting is that helping others healed me in so many ways. It taught me compassion and gave me more wonderful friends than I could have imagined.

For more information, or to order an autographed copy of the book, visit www.maimahkarmo.com.