Vicki Belo. Image: Instagram/@victoria_belo
Vicki Belo opened up for the first time about her stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis in 2016, revealing she was told at the time that she only had two years to live.
The celebrity doctor recounted in a conversation with broadcaster Korina Sanchez for “Korina Interviews” last Sunday, Oct. 2, how she sought treatment in Europe and New York during which she “disappeared” for about two years.”
“This is the first time I’m going to discuss it and only because I trust you and I think it’s over,” Belo told Sanchez. “I had cancer in 2016. I was diagnosed with third stage cancer of the breast.”
“I was diagnosed I think in January of the year then I went to Europe and I was told by them there that I was going to die—’Don’t bother to have chemo, just fix your affairs. You’re dead in two years,'” she narrated. “I went to New York but they wouldn’t give me anything so I asked, ‘What are my chances?’ and they were very quiet—’We’ll try our best.'”
Belo also recalled that she was undergoing a chemotherapy session when she was informed that her mom, who passed away in the same year, had collapsed and could not be revived.
“[It was] traumatic but I think my mom passed away because Atom kept telling her, ‘Vicki has to go to the States but she won’t leave because she wants to be near you,'” she stated, referring to her ex-husband Atom Henares.
Belo then turned emotional as she spoke about how she considers Scarlet, her daughter with her husband Hayden Kho, as the “no. 1” secret why she was able to soldier on despite the hardships she had been through.
“Kasi (Because) I really look at her and I want to be with her. I don’t want to leave her so young, so I kept praying ‘Lord, please give me time,'” Belo said.
Belo and Kho, who tied the knot in a Parisian wedding in 2017, welcomed Scarlet, their only child, in 2015. /ra
RELATED STORIES:
Vicki Belo ‘flattered’ over being impersonated in ‘Drag Race Philippines’
Hayden Kho to Vicki Belo on their 5th anniversary: ‘I love doing life with you’