Identical twins in chemo together at Toronto hospital

Categories: Uncategorized.

Caroline Singer wasn’t daunted when the doctors told her she has stage three ovarian cancer. Her twin sister, Annabelle, would show her the way.

Annabelle has lived with the disease for nearly 25 years, after all. She’s a veteran of the cancer netherworld, a 74-year-old with closely cropped silver hair who knows how to navigate the matrix of checkups, surgeries, chemotherapy sessions and blood tests. She’s also stubbornly positive minded, refusing to let the cancer dampen her spirit and resolve to love life.

“She’s like a pioneer,” says Caroline, sitting beside Annabelle in the shade of a patio arbour on the 16th floor of Princess Margaret Hospital, the epicentre of the twins’ cancer treatment that they have cheerily dubbed “the pink bubble.”

“You’re the master of your own destination,” Caroline explains. “You could sulk yourself into —”

“The grave,” Annabelle says, finishing her sister’s thought. Caroline nods.

“I choose a pink bubble.”

The Singer sisters exhibit the preternatural closeness reserved for identical twins, and speak with the similar cadence of people who spend much time together. The only perceptible difference between them is their hair. Caroline has the long, thick hair they’ve sported their whole lives, while Annabelle has had to cut hers short for treatment. “She’s the ‘before’ and I’m the ‘after,’ ” she laughs.

The twins grew up in an anglophone Montreal family, an environment they credit for bestowing them with a cosmopolitan flair. That proclivity drew them into the fashion world, which welcomed them gladly.

They were globetrotters through the ’60s and ’70s, working on Hollywood film sets, rubbing shoulders with Bob Hope and Frankie Avalon, partying with the likes of Bill Cosby in Acapulco, sipping chardonnay on yachts in the French Riviera and being hired to promote Rolls-Royce at car shows in Italy.

Since then they’ve seen each other through a series of marriages, helped one another raise children — Annabelle has two sons; Caroline, a daughter. Now, with Caroline’s diagnosis in March, the twins have started their next trek: cancer, together.

At Princess Margaret they share an oncologist, and book their checkups and blood tests on the same days. During chemotherapy they sit together, side by side.

“We’ve been together through everything,” says Annabelle.

“It’s now us and cancer.”

Click here to view the full article.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *