Best cancer didn't spoil Margarita Fores appetite for life

She had looked death in the eye — twice — but came out triumphant. Celebrity chef Margarita “Gaita” Fores proves that being diagnosed with thyroid cancer (in 2006) and breast cancer (in 2013) is not a death sentence, but is surely “life-changing.”

Like some survivors, Gaita discovered both her cancers accidentally. A consultation to see if her drooping eyelid was caused by myasthenia (an abnormal weakening of certain muscles) led to a CT scan that revealed suspicious nodules in her thyroid. A biopsy confirmed they were malignant.

She sought treatment in San Francisco, USA. She remembers feeling isolated after undergoing radioactive iodine therapy.

“You almost feel like you have the plague,” she shares. “At that time, the people I traveled with had to stay in a different room after I got out of the hospital. I couldn’t even sit next to them in the van because I was still radioactive.”

She admits that going through the treatment made her question herself. “You realize your mortality,” she says. Her son, Amado, was also very much affected by her illness. She recounts him saying: “You should just hurry up since I’m going to be left alone anyway.”

And that’s when she realized how much her condition has affected her loved ones.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE Seven years later, Gaita felt a lump under her breast. A mammogram showed it was benign, but it also showed a mass under it that turned out to be cancerous.

Breast cancer is the most common and most fatal cancer in women. In 2020 alone, more than 10,000 Filipinas died of breast cancer.

But instead of wallowing in self-pity, Gaita dealt with her health scare face on. Caught in its early stage, the mass was removed via lumpectomy in Singapore. She also went through 35 sessions of radiation and was put on Femara, an oral medication to treat breast cancer and prevent it from recurring.

Off the medication since last year, she is now cancer-free and sees her doctors regularly for constant monitoring.

A breast cancer diagnosis affects not just the patient, but also their loved ones. While there is so much more about breast cancer that is beyond our control, we can still take steps to ensure that we are protected or that we have a fighting chance.

Gaita advises women to have a monthy self-breast exam and undergo breast ultrasound screenings, “especially if you have a family history of cancer like breast cancer.”

THIS TWO-TIME CANCER SURVIVOR IS ALSO A CAREGIVER

Still, it would not be Gaita’s last encounter with the disease. Her mom, Baby Araneta Fores, was 84 when she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Within a year, it metastasized to her spine, then her brain. In her mom’s final weeks, Fores kept her company, sleeping on a chair next to her every night.

“It was very, very challenging for my siblings and me. We had to deal with how to care for her, how to cushion her from the pain she was going through, and the stark reality that was in her face,” Gaita recalls.

In March 23, style icon Baby Araneta Fores passed away from complications of stage 4 lung cancer.

Gaita’s unique position as both cancer survivor and caregiver to a loved one with cancer has been, indeed, life-changing.

“It makes me want to live life to the fullest, to make the most of every situation that’s given to me,” she says. “It also gives you a clear perspective on making sure that whatever you do touches everybody else’s lives and helps make things better for others. In other words, you put a lot more meaning into everything, and feel the gratitude for the healing, for getting over the illness twice, in my case.”

COACHELLA FOR HEALING

To diners with a discriminating palate, Gaita is synonymous with impeccable Italian cuisine. She’s the celebrated chef behind Lusso, Grace Park Dining, The Loggia at Palacio de Memoria, and of course, the beloved and enduring Cibo and its catering service Cibo di Marghi.

But to the participants of Coachella for Healing, a holistic wellness program that offers relaxing activities and psycho-social support to underprivileged cancer survivors and their loved ones, Fores is just one of them.

Gaita joined the wellness program to share her experience — both as a cancer patient and caregiver — “to help other participants go through their challenges a little better.”

“What I went through with my own bout with cancer and with my mom is still very much in my consciousness,” she adds.

The brainchild of veteran photographer Jun de Leon (whose wife, beauty queen and model Abbygale Arenas de Leon, is a breast cancer survivor), Coachella for Healing combines the knowledge and expertise of functional medicine provider and advocate LifeScience Center, and Cancer Resource and Wellness (Carewell) Community, the non-profit that provides support, education, and hope to persons with cancer and their loved ones.

Set amid the lush, open, and creative space of Casa San Pablo in San Pablo City, Laguna, this all-expenses-paid two-day wellness break isn’t just his way of giving back, following Abby’s recovery. It’s his opportunity to rally behind those who feel scared and discouraged by their diagnosis.

“There is life after cancer,” he declares. “Life should never be half-lived.”

And Gaita is proof of that. With the pandemic under control and “revenge entertaining” having a moment in Manila’s social scene, Asia’s Best Female Chef of 2016 has been busier than ever, opening three branches of Cibo in Cebu, a second branch in Bacolod, and the latest branch of A Mano, her son Amado’s well-received foray into the restaurant business.

But she’s also learning to take a step back. She now sleeps longer, after years of getting by on just four hours, and includes healthy choices, like turmeric and leafy greens, in what she eats.

This two-time cancer survivor never loses hope — and her appetite for life — so why should you?