It is better to paint your thoughts than to suffocate with them, and be defeated twice;

Once with illness, and another with sadness, miracles may not happen, and perhaps everyone has to accept the heavy tests until the end.

Some try to enjoy life or adapt to painful circumstances as much as possible, and keep laughing in place of tears.

That is why the decision of the Egyptian young woman, Nour Abdel Aziz, 25, to tell the story of her illness with cancer in a different way, not only calls for sadness or sympathy, but also forces you to smile.

With comics and caricature, the art and design graduate chose to chronicle her journey with cancer.

Nour tells Al Jazeera Net that her recent suffering was not the first time that drawing saved her, as the pen and paper were her saviors in times of sadness and depression, but this time art was more than a companion, it was her tongue that carried gratitude to the world that stood next to her, and her appreciation for all A moment she experienced, whether it was a moment of hope or pain, the important thing is that she is still able to express and draw.

Art was more than a companion to Nour, as it was her tongue that carried gratitude to the world that stood next to her (Al Jazeera)

An ordinary life that Nour lived before 2019, she tells Al Jazeera Net, as she worked in some graphic companies, then teaching was her last stage, before she discovered what completely changed her life inside one of the gyms, in which the twenty-year-old girl intended to attend to maintain an ideal body. , but the figure you are trying to achieve with Zumba and yoga is distorted by a big belly, tight all the time.

At first, she thought that it was the effect of the new exercises, but the situation was getting worse and the size of the abdomen was getting bigger, without being accompanied by a significant increase in her weight, and on one of the mornings of winter 2019, Nour was surprised by severe abdominal pain, all painkillers did not succeed in stopping him, and quickly began a journey From the x-rays, I realized that something was growing inside of it.

“Noor ate her twin,” the sentence that the girl and her family did not understand at first sight, until the doctor continued, explaining, “He would accompany Nour on her mother’s pregnancy journey with another twin, and sometimes the twin cells ate each other, and the strong controlled the weak, and this is what happened, and Nour was born. And inside her is her twin, who has been accompanying her throughout her life, until she felt those pains that she wanted to get out of her.

Nour's twin, the weak cell made up of bones, teeth, skin, hair and features, emerged as a fully formed small child, in a condition called scientifically "teratoma", which occurs to one person in every half a million people.

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A post shared by Nour Abdelaziz (@light_creates)

The question that Nour kept repeating to her doctor, who followed her condition from the beginning, and described him as the family doctor, “You are sure, Doctor, that I have recovered?” The doctor answers her, confirming her 100% recovery, and to remove those fears from her, “You just have to do x-rays. 3 months later."

Corona did not wait for Noor until her waiting period ended, so the world closed its doors, and during that time Nour was back to her normal life;

She works, plays sports, meets her friends, and depicts her suffering, then again noticed the large size of her stomach, which became swollen, but without pain this time, with the absence of appetite and constant diarrhea.

Nearby lives a doctor, who asked her for Corona tests, the tests were not promising, not only Corona, and the doctor had doubts about Nour’s condition, according to her medical history, but the matter did not require the attention of the family, and Nour was treated as a “Covid-19” patient, but she did not improve. on medicines.

Nour defeated her pain by drawing the journey of her illness in the form of a comic (communication sites)

A long journey of pain and suffering, Nour went through until she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the fourth stage, and that everything that happened from the beginning was the result of a medical error by a gynecologist, who was quick to diagnose the first infection with teratoma without analyzing it as a sample that could potentially have cancerous tumors, which would have eliminated the suffering She has continued with Nour and her family until now, with tests, x-rays, and surgeries, and the endless effects of the treatment journey, the least of which is the psychological pain and the constant feeling of sadness because she was the victim of a doctor who described her pain as "dala girls".

Drawing was Nour's choice in her long journey with pain, which started with teratoma, then cancer in its fourth stage, and finally an inefficient lung, the comic story that Nour started in late 2020 to tell her steps with the disease, protects those who are going through her rare condition, and tells women that they should not trust Whoever mocks their pain or considers it an illusion.

Nour's story, for which she chose the title "I ate my twin", interacted with many, especially in support groups for cancer patients. Nour says of her participation in these groups, "The best thing that social media has produced is to make it easy to reach and communicate with people with experiences."