Encouraging her mother to take a routine mammogram Howayda discovered that she had breast cancer. She struggled against her society’s misconceptions of cancer as she faced her own journey battling the disease. She tells, humorously of one of her greatest burdens, the constant demands by friends and extended family to give them reports of her illness which she tells through the tale of “the crocodile”. She also tells of the importance of the support of her husband and children who have all become active in the struggle against breast cancer.