At the age of just 17, Dorothy Amuah established her own firm while still in her final year at secondary school in the United Kingdom. The company took a downturn after two years in operation but Dorothy has since made her mark as a successful businesswoman, managing multiple ventures in Ghana.
Today, whenever she gets the chance, the mother-of-two shares her personal mission – to touch the lives of cancer patients and cancer survivors, particularly women and girls.
Dorothy Amuah was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer at the young age of 29. At that time, she was happily married and had a thriving private business.
She was compelled to put these parts of her life on hold to concentrate on recovery.
A rich family life
Yet life was good before she heard the news that she had cancer. Dorothy has fond memories of her childhood in Labone, Accra, where she spent part of her early days as a child before moving to the United Kingdom.
She was born to a senior military officer, George Amuah, and an educationist mother, Dorothy Amuah Sr, who owned and ran Association International School, established by her parents in the Airport Residential Area of Accra.
Her family life was happy and fulfilled – but then the government of the time was overthrown and her father’s life came under threat.
George Amuah escaped into exile but was sentenced to life in prison in absentia. Dorothy and other members of the family moved to the UK to begin a new life and escape the ills that had struck them in Accra.
Beginnings of resilience
Dorothy received her first education in the UK after her family went into exile in Stanstead Saint Margaret’s, Hertfordshire; she later went to the Bruton School for Girls in Somerset. She earned her first degree, in optometry, from the University of London. She describes her days on campus as some of the happiest in her life.
The business-minded Dorothy started making her own money while she was very young. At 17, while still in secondary school, she established a fashion promotion business to train emerging designers and give them exposure through a fashion show. She continued running the company up to her second year on campus at the University of London.
After gaining her optometry degree she moved to the United States to begin a career, and soon tied the knot with her fiancé. She was healthy, active, happily married and running a number of flourishing businesses.
Three months in to their marriage, her husband discovered a lump in her breast. A doctor confirmed that the lump was cancerous.
The news left Dorothy and her husband shattered. At 29, she was obliged to take the bold decision to submit to a mastectomy to remove the cancer cells. The operation cost a great deal of money. She underwent another procedure involving breast reconstruction using her own body tissue. The surgery took place over 15 hours. Then followed six months of gruelling chemotherapy to kill every cancer cell in her body.
Touching lives
Despite the major setback to her career, Dorothy beat the odds and survived the life-threatening disease. And on being discharged from hospital, a few days after her first surgery, this resilient woman went to her office in New York to check on her businesses and her workers.
“I didn’t let it stop me,” she told Asaase Radio. “Mentally, if you believe that you can beat the disease [cancer], you will. That’s 50% of the survival.”
As she managed her retail venture in New York City, people would go to her place of business to share their stories of struggling with cancer. Informally, she began to use her own story of motivation and survival to help breast cancer patients and survivors.
When her father died, she decided to channel the pain of her loss and the inspiration she had derived from his achievements to establish a charitable foundation to “give back to society”.
Through Dorothy’s Hope Foundation and her other businesses, she has garnered a great deal of support and attention for cancer sufferers as she empowers people living with the disease and survivors alike.
She attributes her achievements to her faith in God and the influence that her father’s accomplishments had on her.
Focus on early detection
Dorothy, who is in her forties, is providing financial support and access to quality health care to breast cancer patients and cancer survivors, especially women and girls. Her Dorothy’s Hope Foundation, which was established six years ago, provides screening and educational seminars, collects data and follows up on patients to ensure that they are following the prescribed treatments.
“Breast cancer has become a big thing in Ghana now,” she says. “People are realising that this disease is devastating, [but] you can survive it if it’s detected early. Early detection is key … The need to have yearly mammograms is important.”
Although she had been organising screening clinics in Accra to assist early detection, Dorothy felt this “wasn’t enough” and decided to take it a step further. She plans to build small container units in all 16 regions of Ghana through her Eye for Cancer project, a three-step programme with a focus on screening by well-trained health professionals for cancer and other deadly diseases.
She plans to use the project to help make Ghana a hub for cancer research and treatment. It is expected to launch by 2023.
Dorothy admits that it hasn’t been easy to find funding but she believes that this will happen. However, she has taken steps to bring the project to life, including meeting and working with Princess Dina Mired of Jordan.
Nathaniel Crabbe
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