I am a deaf-blind childhood cancer survivor who sees in one eye and wears hearing aids in both ears. As told by my mother and myself, be prepared to be inspired as you go through every emotion reading stories shared about overcoming adversity with resilience while fulfilling my love of music, travel, and photography. In this book, we share experiences on what we learned from living with nonhereditary bilateral retinoblastoma. This book helps you to gain a better understanding of this rare childhood eye cancer.
It also shines a light on a loving and supportive community. This book inspires parents, guardians, and teenagers who are affected by childhood cancer or who are eye cancer survivors.
The author, Zaakirah, was diagnosed with a rare eye cancer, non-hereditary bilateral retinoblastoma when she was nine months old. Zaakirah is a deaf-blind childhood cancer survivor who sees in one eye and wears hearing aids in both ears. This book alternates between the author’s personal memories of overcoming medical adversity and blog entries written by the author’s mother, Khai'dah. The blog entries highlight the search for proper treatment while the author’s personal writings share how she acclimated to her monocular existence. Ms. Muhammad began to form her identity through the adversity she was forced to overcome. You will be inspired as Zaakirah shares how she learned to fulfill her love of music, travel, and photography. This book helps you to gain a better understanding of this rare childhood eye cancer.
BIOGRAPHY
Zaakirah Muhammad is a cancer survivor, Sagittarius, world traveler, author, podcaster, brand cultivating strategist, professional photographer, and digital marketer. She helps small businesses to make your social media pages look good and advise you on the best social media tactics for growing and being consistent with your brand on social media. At 6 months old, a camera saved her life. At 9 months old, she was taken into surgery to have her right eye removed due to a rare childhood eye cancer tumor that was detected by a photo her mom took. Her hearing slowly began to decline as she got older, but her other three senses kicked in and are functioning well.
At age five her mom gifted her with her first camera. She received her first digital camera in middle school. By the time she attended technical high school, she studied commercial photography. She never strayed too far from her purpose in life. Later on, she moved to Washington D.C. to expand her education in professional photography and videography.
She has traveled to 10 countries so far. She took her professional camera on most of her out of country travels but Ghana, West Africa was the first time that others viewed her work as if they were on the trip and have traveled with her, due to the way she beautifully captures sceneries and personalities. She loves capturing the essence of humanity. As a people person and an empath, she wants her legacy to include the fact that she was able to see the good in you, help you live your best life, which inspired you to step outside of your comfort zone. She is the author of Seeing Life Through a Different Lens: A Survivor’s Memoir on Overcoming Adversity with Resilience. She also hosts the podcast called Living Legacy.
Zaakirah Muhammad
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