Maria de los Angeles Ortiz It is not considered an example for the population, but it is an inspiring story that can raise awareness about cancer.
The athlete originally from Tabasco was diagnosed with this condition more than a decade ago. It was difficult news to assimilate and the process was even more so, since they could not find the area where the core of the disease was located.
“When they told me I had cancer I had to sit down. My mother fell sitting in the chair. Yes it was painful, it was shocking, “I talked to my family and told them that they didn’t guarantee that they could solve me, they just told me to see if the chemo or the radios get to where they need to go,” the pitcher recalls.
“It was quite confusing. The news shook me and after a few days I decided that I was not going to take the chemo, so they also gave me a voluntary discharge because they were no longer responsible for my health. I asked for the plates that they had made for me, I sent them to the Institute of Women’s Cancerology in Mexico City and indeed, it was cancer, it was metastasis and it was carcinoma,” he adds.
They detected it in time
Early detection was one of the keys in his case to get ahead, because as soon as he noticed something strange, he went to the doctor.
“I started with some balls and they started to grow to the size of a lemon. I thought they were lymph nodes and I went to a very trusted ENT doctor. He did some studies on me and after reviewing them he told me ‘let’s do a biopsy’, when he said that word I said ‘wow’,” says the athlete.
But his lifeline, in addition to his family, was sports. Without them, the situation would have been more difficult.
“The pain belonged to everyone and above my pain I saw the pain of my parents. When I saw their face I knew how much it hurt them, they believed they could lose a daughter and that has no name, but you have to become strong. “I have a lot of faith in God and I held on to my faith and I held on to my family,” he said. “Sport has been a driving force for me since I was little. It is an inspiration for me, it has been the cleanest and most powerful way that has forced what my parents taught me at home,” he adds.
Raise awareness among women
Today, he undergoes constant check-ups and examinations, and the results have been favorable. In addition, it is part of some campaigns to raise awareness about this disease.
“I am constantly checking myself because any symptom must be detected in time to go to the right doctor. It is our health, the most precious gift that God gives us. It is up to us to take care of ourselves, the responsibility of being healthy and detecting it in time to correct it in any case,” he recommends.
María de los Ángeles is now a grandmother and she wants to be an example for her daughter and her granddaughter Gianna, who at six years old already began winning medals in state gymnastics competitions.
“I tell them that they have to take care of themselves. I tell them: ‘I don’t have a leg, but you are complete, I was once complete and I didn’t lose my leg because of my recklessness,’” he reveals. “However, toI love what I have today, I am not stuck in what I don’t have, but in what I have, and I take care of it. I want to see my granddaughter grow up and maybe see her children, but in health,” she says.
Angie has competed in the shot put at four Paralympic Games, from Beijing 2008 to Paris 2024, in which he has won three medals (two gold in 2012 and 2016, and one silver in 2008)which makes her the woman who has given the most medals to Mexico in this discipline and she is already preparing for the next edition of Los Angeles, her last Games.
“Next week we begin the journey of Ángeles in Los Angeles, it is a wonderful project that I hope will turn out very well,” he says.
AVV
