Yakata Miki gives an update on her life five years after being diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer

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Yakata Miki, a former SKE48 member who currently works as a radio personality, updated her SNS on October 19th. In honor of October’s “Pink Ribbon Month”, she wrote about her treatment experience since she was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago, and her physical condition since then.

“It’s been five years this year since I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018. These five years seem like a long time, but they’ve flown by in the blink of an eye”.

Although it was initially diagnosed as stage 1, after repeated tests, it was finally diagnosed as stage 3, which raised the possibility of anti-cancer treatment, and doctors warned that fertility would decline. Yakata also revealed that she was offered the option of freezing her eggs.

After having her eggs frozen, as well as having her left mastectomy and lymph nodes removed, Yakata underwent breast reconstruction, saying, “Rather than looking at my appearance, I chose to live and do what I wanted to do first”.

During the treatment, she suffered from side effects and was in a painful mood. Yakata said, “There were times when I felt anxious about the future, lacked self-confidence, and started to hate myself. For better or for worse. I’m living my life, so I’m going forward, muttering to myself, ‘It’s going to be okay’.

On the other hand, Yakata said that she still suffers from problems that are not visible to the naked eye, saying, “I have definitely been suffering from menopause since I was 25 years old, and it has been difficult for me to maintain my body shape, and my memory has clearly deteriorated”.

Confessing the impact of the treatment. However, she is grateful that she is where she is today thanks to the treatment she chose, saying, “There were times when I gave up because I couldn’t do many things, but if I had the will, there were things I could do and do”.