Ten years, four cancers. The last decade has been punctuated by several trials for Sylvie Miglioli, who nevertheless has not lost her luminous smile.
A regular at the Aquasud swimming pool in Differdange, she immediately agreed to parade for the Aqua pink fashion show which will take place this Thursday, October 17. Organized as part of Fashion Week and especially Pink October, the event is dedicated to inclusiveness, solidarity and the celebration of diversity.
Models with varied profiles will be present, some affected by cancer just like her, to remind us that well-being does not correspond to a single model. Stressed? Not in the least. “I’ve never marched in my life, but I’m not apprehensive at all. When you have been sick, you see things differently. Plus it’s for a good cause. I’ll even be in lingerie, but that’s no problem, I don’t have any false modesty! That would be ridiculous.”
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Let’s go back a little to understand such confidence. For her, it all started in 2014, during a routine medical check-up at the invitation of the CNS for her fiftieth birthday. “I developed” a very rare type of tumor. The first time I had surgery, they didn’t even talk to me about cancer.” She heard this word six months later, when she experienced a first recurrence. “The medical team told me they were no longer able to take care of me, so they looked for a place where it would be possible.”
It is at the Beaujon hospital in Clichy that she will be operated on a second time successfully. But a sword of Damocles will very quickly appear above his head. A nine-year reprieve. “A check-up revealed a new tumor, a few days before the end of year holidays at the end of 2023…” Followed by another at the beginning of January 2024.
The language of war, meaningless in the face of illness
This time there was no longer any question of operation. “I was given radiotherapy, the most powerful there is, much more than the so-called classic one. It was targeted. I spent a week in Paris again last March and in July I had an appointment to see if the effects were there.”
They were there, even if it was not without clashes. The fight gets tougher each time, both for the body and the mind. “The word cancer is absolutely not trivialized, it is still a word that scares people, especially those who are sick. When we learn it, when it comes back, there is no story of a fighter, of a winner, of a battle, all these words are empty of meaning.
I had acquaintances who no longer even dared to call me, for fear of not knowing what to say to me. On the other hand, we don’t admit it well, we don’t want to lose the connection.
The young retiree deplores that the first instinct is to use this warlike lexical field. “Of course they are afraid for you too, but too quickly these sentences come: ”Yes, you are a fighter, yes, you will fight, you will succeed…”. They all say that and we hear it from so many people that it passes through us without touching us.”
Sylvie Miglioli: “It doesn’t just happen to others, get followed, take tests if necessary, it’s essential.” © PHOTO: Sandra Packard
In his eyes, the only tangible truth in each announcement is above all “a moment of collapse”. There then remain two questions in the event of a repeat offense like this: where and when? “Where the next tumors will appear and especially when. And no matter how much everyone reassures you, the medical team, the people you love, you are fundamentally alone in the face of the truth of the illness…”
Seek pleasure and anchoring projects
An inevitable solitude, but one from which we must know how to escape, says Sylvie Miglioli. “First, you have to allow yourself to hit rock bottom, without pretense. Cry if you need to, but after the tears and withdrawal, it is imperative to seek pleasure.” And not just in food and letting go. No. You need to return as much as possible to what brings you joy and to those you love.
Those around him should not hesitate to talk about him, his worries, the rest. We need to talk about something other than our own illness. Life goes on and we don’t want to be cut off from it.
“You have to see people. I think some people have had a worse situation than me and so I put things into perspective. I think of my uncle who lost his son, my tragedy is so small compared to his… He represents a real model of resilience in my eyes, with his 95 years.
A vision which pushed her to return to swimming four times a week, to continue going to the Esch conservatory to learn to play the drums and above all, “to have pleasant topics of conversation”. Continuing to support his eldest daughter in building her house is also close to his heart, for lasting memories.
“All this is what keeps me moving forward, but the most important thing to remember is that you have to do the follow-ups, do the exams when the CNS invites you to do them, it doesn’t just happen to others. Those who don’t do it, when they have the symptoms, it’s already too late… It’s not pleasant, but it’s part of the game!”
In his eyes, no treatment is trivial, but they give time and sometimes permanently save. “However, I believe that there is not enough interest in alternative medicine, in treatments with natural products, I am starting to look into it.” A new challenge and looking straight ahead.
