"Fear Gripped Me": Diana Hamilton Opens Up on Cancer Scare in Candid Interview
- Ghanaian gospel musician Diana Hamilton has opened up about a frightening health scare that began with what was expected to be a routine appendectomy
- Doctors discovered a mass during the surgery and feared it could be cancerous, leading to part of her intestines being removed
- Hamilton endured a three-week wait for her biopsy results before doctors confirmed there was no trace of cancer in her body
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Ghanaian gospel musician Diana Hamilton has opened up about surviving a frightening health scare that doctors initially feared was cancer.
Source: UGC
In an interview on Joy Prime TV, the singer detailed how a routine hospital procedure turned into a life-changing ordeal.
Diana Hamilton, born Diana Antwi on December 4, 1978, trained as a nurse at the Komfo Anokye Nursing College before building a career in gospel music.
She has since become one of Ghana's most decorated gospel acts, winning Artist of the Year and Gospel Artist of the Year at the 2021 Ghana Music Awards for her hit song "Adom."
Diana was also named Most Streamed Female Act of the Year at the 2021 3Music Women's Brunch and listed among the Top 30 Most Influential Women in Music that same year.
In 2024, she featured Nigerian gospel star Mercy Chinwo on her song "The Doing of the Lord."
Diana Hamilton's appendectomy turned into a cancer scare
Hamilton traced the ordeal back to what was supposed to be a straightforward procedure, explaining that her husband's medical background shaped the early decisions around her care.
She said the appendectomy came after years of unresolved visits to the doctor's office.
Diana Hamilton said:
"I was scheduled for an appendicectomy. It's a day case, because my husband's a doctor, so he had spoken to the doctors. They were like, we think we should take a look at the appendix, because I had gone through years of dilly-dallying with the doctors and we didn't know what was happening."
She said the news took a frightening turn when doctors told her they had spotted a mass and feared it affected her intestines.
Although she and her husband initially agreed to a simple day-case appendix removal, she found the consent form had included permission to remove part of her intestines as well.
What was supposed to be a short procedure lasting under an hour stretched into a five-hour surgery, after which doctors told her they had gone ahead and removed part of her intestines along with the appendix.
The following morning, a team of specialists, including cancer nurses and medical students, gathered by her bedside to explain that what they had found did not look normal.
Diana Hamilton's candid interview about her near-cancer scare is below.
Diana Hamilton's three-week wait and the good news
Hamilton said the biopsy results would take three weeks, a wait she described as testing despite her strong faith.
She said she leaned on her belief in God to get through the uncertainty, even as fear crept in.
Diana Hamilton said:
"I am a woman of faith, but I am human. And so fear gripped me, but I encouraged myself in the Lord."
Remarkably, exactly a week after she was discharged, against a recommended six weeks of bed rest, Hamilton travelled to Maryland and then to Worcester, Massachusetts, to perform before returning home.
Three weeks after her surgery, she went in for the results with fear and panic but also with faith. She said the doctor's response brought immediate relief, confirming there was no trace of cancer in her body.
Diana Hamilton opens up on her father's death
According to an earlier report by YEN.com.gh, Diana Hamilton had also spoken about a painful chapter in her life when her father, Apostle Felix Antwi, died in the United States in May 2013 while she watched over a Skype call.
She explained that she was in London at the time and flew to America after her sisters told her his condition had taken a turn for the worse.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
