Victoria Ekanoye, a former Coronation Street actress, has been talking about the obstacles that black women in the African community and diaspora encounter when they are given a cancer diagnosis in a new documentary.
In October 2021, the actress who portrayed Angie Appleton on the sitcom received a DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) diagnosis.
Victoria earlier claimed that the lump on her breast was so large that she didn’t need to check for it since DCIS causes the cells within the milk ducts to develop into cancer.
Victoria ultimately received a formal diagnosis following a third opinion from the physicians.
Victoria has been filming for a documentary called The Naked Truth throughout Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Kenya, the United States, and the United Kingdom after receiving the all-clear.
She explained her new initiative to Manchester Evening News, saying, “I’ve been as open as I possibly can be about my cancer journey in the hope that it will encourage others to advocate for themselves, as that’s one of the reasons why I’m here today to be able to do this.”
Victoria began to observe a difference in the mortality rate for black women with breast cancer when she spoke at conferences and worked with organisations.
It is “heartbreaking to know that some people are being diagnosed with stage three and four cancer,” she added, adding that “there is a huge taboo in the African community and the diaspora when it comes to talking about cancer.”
Not because it was imperceptible, but rather because they were embarrassed to discuss it with their friends, relatives, or medical professionals.
Victoria, a mother of Theo, hopes that through making this documentary, she will contribute to shattering the taboo and “amplifying voices for those people that either don’t feel they can speak out or be heard for whatever reason.”
I can only imagine what it must be like to have to fight for your life without access to treatment and care and to be afraid to talk about it or even to be ashamed that you have cancer, she continued. “I was diagnosed at 39, which was in the same year that I gave birth to my baby boy, and the impact on my family was just immense.”
From 2017 through 2019, Victoria portrayed the part of Angie in Corrie.
She also had an appearance in the celebrity edition of The Chase, and she travelled to the Caribbean last year to film an episode of Death in Paradise for BBC One.
