07/04/2026
“This is the first day of the rest of my life.”
“I couldn’t say the word cancer. If I didn’t name it, maybe it couldn’t fully touch me.”
One of our colleagues, Ildikó Kátai‑Perkátai, found the lump during a self‑examination, at a time when her life was all about movement, strength, and forward momentum. Training for a 10‑kilometer race, she told herself she would deal with the strange little shape later. After all, she felt powerful. She ran fast. She felt alive. “Surely people with cancer don’t run like this,” she thought.
But cancer doesn’t wait for the right moment.
Ildikó was diagnosed with an almost two‑centimeter malignant tumor with lymph node metastasis. Just a few weeks later, with the help of her doctors, Ildikó made a bold decision: she wanted to be absolutely sure and opted for a bilateral mastectomy.
“All I could focus on was healing and never again living in fear of cancer returning. I only dared to look in the mirror two days after the surgery. That was when it became clear to me: this would be the first day of the rest of my life. And I want to live this life in such a way that when I look back, I won’t regret a single minute of it.”
Ildikó, as a mother of three, remained active, clinging to this sense of activity even during the most difficult periods. Once, her youngest son asked whether people can die from this disease. “I told him yes, some people do die from it. He then asked me why I wasn’t taking it seriously.”
Throughout treatment, Ildikó laughed, worried, celebrated, and lived, and refused to let cancer define her inner world. Her children admired her; she became their role model.
Today, she is back at work, back to sport, and back to life, with deeper awareness, stronger priorities, and an unshakable perspective on her lifestyle.
Today, on World Health Day, her story reminds us of something simple and profound: facing our fears doesn’t make them bigger, it makes us braver.
💚 Get to know Ildikó’s full story in our blog article:
👉 https://sie.ag/3CQvc7
At evosoft, it is very important to support our colleagues’ mental and physical well‑being with benefits, emphasize the importance of prevention, and help maintain a healthy balance between work and private life.
