Doctoral student in endocrinology, Shyamala Gopalan, has advanced breast cancer research thanks to her discoveries.
“My mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, had two goals in life: to raise my sister and me, and to eradicate breast cancer,” Kamala Harris remembered on October 20 on social networks.
Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who died in 2009 at the age of 70 from colon cancer, was “the greatest source of inspiration in my life,” continued the vice-presidential candidate. “I was raised by a mother who always told me: ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do a lot of things, but make sure you’re not the last,'” the Democrat also said in the show Good Morning America. Statements that sound like premonitions given the vice-president’s career.
A “force of nature”
Kamala Harris regularly talks about her mother, whom she describes as a “force of nature”: “She taught us the value of hard work. She taught us not to let anyone tell us who we are. She taught us not only to dream, but also to act She taught us to believe in our power to change what is wrong,” she defended on Instagram.
At the age of 19, Shyamala Gopalan left her native India to settle in the United States where she continued her studies at the University of Berkeley, in a master’s degree in nutrition and endocrinology, until becoming a doctor in 1963. His research has notably made it possible to advance the fight against breast cancer. During her inauguration speech, Kamala Harris recalled that her mother was a “pioneer in the fight for women’s health.” “She taught us to never complain about injustice but to fight against injustice,” said the vice-president who has rightly made women’s health one of the main subjects of her presidential campaign.