October 08th 2011
Nadège Knight: She Comes Highly Commended!
By Kendell “Scady” Eugene

Nadège Knight showed a keen interest in the English language at an early age. Her first love was reading and quickly added writing to that list. In 2008, her older sister encouraged her to take part in the Commonwealth Essay Competition. Her essay entitled "Strange Happenings at the Market" caught the attention of the judges. It was about a homeless man who was recognized by the Government for the work he did in the middle of the night, when no one was watching.
To her surprise, after the results were announced, Nadège who was a student of the Canon Laurie Anglican Primary School placed fourth in her age group, out of over six thousand entries around the world gaining a welcomed recognition for her and her school.
In 2009, she participated again, writing an essay called "Back to the Past." In that essay Nadège spoke about the living conditions in the year 1909. She also caught the attention of the judges with that essay and was Highly Commended for her work by the Commonwealth.
She took a break in 2010 and competed again this year. Now a student of the St Joseph's Convent, Nadège composed an essay entitled "Girl Power" and will be receiving a Gold Award for it.
Nadège wants to continue taking part in the competition and hopefully bring the first prize home to St Lucia. Here is the essay that won Nadège her gold medal.

Kimani and I have been best friends, more like sisters from the time we were born, both from single-parent families. Our mothers were best friends from high school so it was only natural that the two of us became as close as we are today. One weekend she would be at my house, the next I’m at hers and this is how our life went from the very first day. We live in a very small town with not many people and so everyone knew each other. The town was quaint and while we would hear about all the technology in other parts of the country, we were rarely a part of it.
One peaceful afternoon around 3:15 pm, while in Kimani’s backyard just hanging out, I heard my mom scream from inside the house. We ran towards her and we found Kimani’s mom laying face down on the floor.
“Abi, call 911!” my mom screamed and I did as I was told. Mom, wake up please.” Kimani cried as she knelt next to her motionless mother, crying. “Kimani, don’t shake her,” my mom ordered. A few minutes later, the sirens came and my mom rushed out to meet the ambulance.
“She’s in here.” She directed the paramedics.
They checked her vitals and kept looking at each other. At that point, I knew something was terribly wrong. Ms Taylor was unconscious the whole time. It was frightening. “What happened?” the medic asked.
“Debora was washing dishes and I was over here seated at the counter. We were just talking, making plans for our high school reunion and before I knew it, she collapsed. There were no signs. She didn’t complain about being dizzy or anything. She just fell and...” My mom said sobbing as she could not continue the explanation.
We all got into the ambulance as Aunty Debbie was rushed to the hospital. Moments passed as we sat in the waiting area. Kimani was a mess and she paced back and forth. Other members of the Taylor family were also there. I couldn’t understand what was going on. How could someone who was perfectly fine just suddenly collapse or maybe she wasn’t fine. Then, the doctor came to address us.

“Ms Taylor is stable at the moment. Her vitals are not very strong but she’s holding on. She apparently had a dizzy spell which caused her to collapse. The cause for the spell is still uncertain but we are currently running some tests.”

“Can we see her?” Kimani asked anxiously. “Yes but one at a time and only for a few minutes,” he advised. Kimani followed the doctor in and she began to cry the minute she saw her mom lying there motionless hooked up to all these machines. She sat next to her and tried to speak. “Mom, what are you doing? You’re all I have. You’ve been my rock all my life and if you leave me now, my foundation will crumble. Don’t do this to me please,” Kimani cried.
Hours passed as we all visited my aunty Debora. Her relatives slowly began to leave, asking that we keep them informed of her progress. It was now after two in the morning and I was not the least bit sleepy. How could I sleep knowing my aunt was in trouble? Another doctor who had taken over the shift approached us.

“Hi, I am Dr Whitfield, taking over for Dr Anderson. The results of the tests will come around 9:00 this morning. Maybe you should go home and get some rest and then come back around that time.” “No!” Kimani yelled “I want to stay with my mom.”
“Kimani, what’s the meaning of this?” my mom asked “Don’t yell!” “I’m sorry Aunty Kim. I just don’t want to leave mommy.” “I understand baby but how about we go home, take a little rest, eat something, take a shower and then come back to be with her? How does that sound?” “Ok I guess.” Kimani responded with her head held low.
We did just that. When we awoke, it was already after 9:00 am and so we got dressed and headed for the hospital. As soon as we entered, Dr Whitfield was in the lounge. He asked us to follow him to his office. “I will get straight to the point. The cause for Debora’s dizzy spell is because she has stage four breast cancer.”
Our eyes and mouths shot open in horror. “What the hell!” Kimani yelled and stormed out of the office. “Go after her Abigail,” my mom ordered and I ran to catch up.
The doctor continued to explain to my mom that in a lot of cases, the symptoms remain undetected until it’s too late. In Aunty Debbie’s case, there was no turning back. The disease had spread to other organs of her body and no amount of treatment at this time would help. She was given two months.
I was able to bring Kimani back into the office and all this was explained to us both. That kind of news hit like a brick wall. I could not believe it nor could I understand how she did not suffer before now. Aunty Debora was my second mom. I grew up with her and now I was going to lose her. Kimani was crushed. She was weak and could no longer stand. She began to throw up and eventually got a nosebleed. I was hurting for my mom, Kimani and most importantly my aunt.
Days passed and she got worse. We spent the majority of our time at the hospital at her bedside. She awoke only one time and thank God we were there to witness it. She told us she loved us and told Kimani she will always be there for her no matter what. It was so painful that my heart literally ached.
It was now two and a half months after her diagnosis and she was still with us.
One Sunday afternoon while we were all in her room with Kimani’s head on her chest, the monitor flat lined. “Nooooo…” Kimani screamed as the doctors rushed in to try to revive her. It was too late. She was gone.
Because breast cancer was something that our town had never experienced before, Aunty Debora made headline news, for all the wrong reasons.
Three months after her death, Kimani and I still felt incomplete. There was something missing in our lives and it was not just her mom. We needed to do something to get people in our little town to recognize that even though we were small, we can still be affected. Kimani was now living with us and one night, while in our room, we came up with a plan.
“We need to start at our school. The girls need to be aware of this disease.” Kimani said. We started a campaign in our school called “Dollar Drive” where students would donate a dollar every day, once they had it, into tins. That money would go towards research in our area for this horrible disease. The news caught on quickly and soon, other schools started the drive. Because my school only had female pupils, Kimani and I decided to name our organization “Girl Power: The Debora Taylor Breast Cancer Foundation”.
After two months, there were ‘Girl Power’ dollar tins all around including in schools, supermarkets, bars, hotels and even Government offices. The Governor got word of our cause and set up a meeting to meet with Kimani and me. A bill was signed in Aunty Debbie’s name and the Government provided additional funding in support of the venture.
After the initial six months of collecting dollars, we had a total of close to $50,000.00 and the amount was climbing. The public was now aware of what signs to look for, how regular to visit a doctor and to get a Papanicolaou test also known as pap smear and also what treatment was now available. ‘Girl Power’ t-shirts, arm bands, dog tags, posters, balloons, media advertisements, bumper stickers, stationery and regular fun walks were happening, all in the name of breast cancer. The campaign was well underway when another case was reported but because of the awareness, that case was caught very early and with the treatment, the cancer was eliminated. My town was no longer ignorant about the disease and it was just sad to know that in order for the awareness to have occurred, someone had to die.
It is now two years later and ‘Girl Power’ is in high gear. We are no longer in High School but both attending College, soon moving onto University, studying to become doctors. We will continue this venture and eventually want to take it on a road tour around the entire country.
We may all have heard about breast cancer but never did any research on the topic. Girl Power says: “There is no excuse for ignorance. Get involved!”

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