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Freshly elected as Miss Nord Pas-de-Calais, Agathe Cauet, 23, looked back on her unusual past: the young woman fought a 9 kg tumor at the age of 17.
In the Miss competitions, the young women follow one another, but are not alike. And their smile can also hide a more complicated past than we think. This is the case of Agathe Cauet, a sunny 23-year-old woman crowned Miss Pas-de-Calais in October, who mentioned in the lines of The voice of the Norththe local daily, a significant experience of his adolescence: a tumor of 9 kg.
His hospitalization gave him his vocation
While she was in her final year, 6 years ago, the young girl from Lille developed what is called a borderline tumour, coupled with a complicated prognosis.
“I had a borderline tumor of 9 kg at 17 years old. The doctors had prepared me for the worst with, in particular, possible chemotherapy” dshe says in an interview dedicated to her.
But the treatment first involves surgery, which delivers her from this extraordinary tumor. An experience which, far from traumatizing her, rather forged her desire to help those around her in turn:
“Finally, the operation cured me. But I haven’t forgotten the very human side of the hospital, and I wanted to help in turn.”
In 2020, she realized her desire to start as a nurse directly in the Covid unit. “It was complicated, I was 21 years old. There were quite a few deaths. The Saint-Philibert intensive care unit was saturated, but I was fully into it. I thought to myself that I was needed. I got involved, like all caregivers.“An altruism that may have played in his election.
What is a “borderline” tumour?
According to IMAGYN, 1st association of patients with gynecological cancers, the borderline tumor is an ovarian tumor “whose lesions include certain abnormalities, in particular microscopic, common with cancers, nevertheless it is not a question of “cancer” in the strict sense of the term”. They are often discovered during ultrasound or infertility assessment. Localized on one or two ovaries, they can also give extensions to the lymph nodes and/or peritoneum.
These lesions have 2 important characteristics: overall, they have a very good prognosis. And in 1/3 of the cases, they occur in “young” patients for whom the preservation of fertility must be considered as an important factor during treatment. The treatment is in the vast majority of cases exclusively surgical and said to be “conservative”, according to the CNGOF, National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians, that is to say that it ensures that subsequent fertility is preserved in young patients.