“Reality TV star Real Givens, known for the show “Real Chance of Love,” passed away at the young age of 33 due to complications from stage 4 colon cancer. His brother shares the details of his cancer battle and the need for awareness and early detection among African Americans.”
It’s been nearly 10 years since we lost reality star Ahmad Givens. Better known as “Real”, one of the stars of VH1’s Real Chance of Love, died after a long battle with cancer in 2015.
He was only 33 years old. According to his brother, Kamaal aka “Chance” from the same show shares what happened to his seemingly healthy brother.
Chance says the reality star’s condition worsened after he took a fall in January of 2015. After that, Real was bedridden ever since.
Givens was first diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer in 2013.
We at The Argus are sharing this story published in Blackdoctor.org, to make our black men and women aware of the deadly disease of colon cancer. And the need to go get tested and raise awareness. I never watched the reality show but I did follow Real’s cancer battle on Twitter.
“I remember I was laying on the hospital bed and the doctor came in crying and when I saw her crying I knew it was something serious,” Real said of the moments before he was informed that he had stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to his liver. “My doctors thought I had, like, three days to live so they just zapped me with chemo. I left out of there with my veins burning and everything.”
African Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial and ethnic group in the US for most cancers. Men and women are equally likely to die from colon cancer, but men are more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer than women of the same age.
In the early stages, colon cancer begins with small polyps, which are shaped like little mushrooms growing on the wall of the colon. Polyps are very common, especially as people get older. Not all polyps develop into cancer but all colorectal cancer begins with polyps.
Certain kinds of polyps are more likely to lead to cancer than others, but the doctor can’t tell if a polyp is precancerous just by looking at it. This is why many doctors remove and analyze any polyp found during screening. Polyps can be identified and removed by colonoscopy, in which a small camera on a flexible tube is inserted into the rectum.
Givens said after surgery, tumors began form and spread to the left side of his brain, leaving him partially paralyzed on the right side of his body.
“I had to learn how to walk again and everything,” explained Givens, who said that radiation successfully eradicated the brain tumor. “I just have faith in God, man.”
Givens broke into reality TV through the 2007 VH1 dating show I Love New York, which he appeared on with brother Kamal “Chance” Givens. He went on to star in spinoffs Real Chance of Love from 2008 to 2009 and Real & Chance: The Legend Hunters in 2010.
One of the things his brother tries to get across to everyone is the need for men to go to the doctor and get tested for prostate cancer. It’s important that Black Men especially get tested but also remember that Black women need to be tested as well.
As with other types of cancer, African Americans need to be screened earlier than the general population. Early detection is key. Ahmad was tested and shortly after was diagnosed with STAGE 4 colon cancer! But had it been at Stage 1, who knows what would have happened or if it could have extended his life?
Our hearts go out to Real’s brother Chance and their loved ones, we’ll truly miss this member of the VH1 family.
Chance posted a tribute to his brother online saying, “I’ll see you one day soon we shall dance again in God’s kingdom forever and ever bro words can’t describe my pain world pray for me!”
Images courtesy of Facebook/Twitter
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