For Andi, X means love

Andi Manzano recently got married, but a few days before the ceremony, one of her endorsements threw her a bridal shower — and it was at that event (which also served as the launching of the endorsement’s latest campaign) that Andi revealed a story that had not just her, but many people in the audience, in tears.

The event was the launching of the X Means Love campaign spearheaded by global health company GSK to promote cervical cancer awareness. The choice of Andi to be the face of the campaign is not a commercial one; she was not chosen because of her popularity or any other reason, but because her own mom is fighting cervical cancer. During the event held at the Shangri-La Makati, Andi related what it was like when she and her siblings found out that their mom was suffering from cervical cancer.

Andi was teary-eyed as she shared the story. “It happened in June (this year), and it was my mom,” says Andi. “We thought she was going through menopause. She was being moody; she was panicking because she would just all of a sudden start bleeding. This had been going on for two months straight already, and she talked to a friend who told her ‘That’s not normal,’ and she had herself checked, and after that, she gathered me and my siblings, and said, ‘Andi, I have to talk to you guys.’ We said, ‘Okay, Mom, what’s wrong?’”

At that point, says Andi, they could already see in their mother’s eyes that this was something serious. “We knew somehow that there was something wrong,” she says. Eventually, they found out it was cancer, but even when they did, Andi couldn’t bring herself to utter the word; it was too emotional a subject. Plus, with preparations for her then-upcoming wedding going on, Andi’s emotions were understandably topsy-turvy.

But back to that moment. “When she said she had cervical cancer, everybody just started crying, but we cried for about 30 seconds, then we had to be strong for her,” relates Andi. “Because, you know, my mom has been strong for everyone, especially me, and seeing her so weak and go through everything — through chemotherapy and radiation — was difficult. But we had to be strong.”

Andi told her mother that she wouldn’t allow her to go through it alone. “I said, ‘I’m gonna go with you, every chemo session you have.’” True enough, Andi would wake up on her mom’s chemo days, pick her up, drive her to the UST hospital and be with her. It was a life-changing, eye-opening experience. “It’s no joke, seeing cancer patients, seeing what they have to go through, hearing the bad news, hearing everything that they don’t want to hear, and it’s so unexpected talaga,” she says.

Andi agreed to take on this endorsement because she wants to let other women out there know how important it is to protect themselves. “My mom’s been healthy her whole life, then suddenly this happens,” she says. “I was there, I saw everything, and I could see how every week she would shed weight, her hair, little by little, started to fall — seeing her go through that, and my family as well, was the most difficult thing.”

That went on for six months. Andi admits that it got in the way of planning her wedding. Like every bride-to-be, she had counted on having her mom to help out with the preparations, like picking out her wedding dress. “Instead, I had to do it alone,” says Andi. “I had to go through everything alone, and it was the loneliest time of my life. But I’m sure my mom went through worse — that’s why this campaign, X Means Love, means so much to me. It’s not just saying that you love yourself, but that you love other people, people who are around you.”

Andi’s mom was suffering from Stage One cervical cancer. Fortunately, they caught it early enough, and now the prognosis is much better. The tumor has decreased in size, and Andi says her mom will apparently no longer need surgery. “She’s healthy, she’s back to normal, it’s like I have my mom back.”

Life goes on for Andi, and for as long as it does, she will keep sharing this inspiring story so that other women can be helped as well.