Viire Valdma says cancer will not stop her life

Actress Viire Valdma, who has overcome an aggressive tumour and the end of a long-term relationship, says life must continue despite its hardships, ERR reported.

Valdma told Vikerraadio that autumn is a time when she fills her stores and looks towards new challenges. Last summer, she tried something completely different by working as a cook at the Iiumekk restaurant on Hiiumaa. She has no plans to leave the theatre and said she is currently in a very beautiful period of her life.

Inactivity is difficult for Valdma. She wants to work, experiment, learn and be useful. As a well-known preserver, she spends the summer and autumn filling jars with what nature provides before winter.

“I like chopping and seasoning, especially seasoning, because taste is very important to me, not only in food but in everything,” she said. “Since my sense of taste in cooking is praised, I think it should be shared.”

Valdma said she was like an autumn rat that needed its stores to be full. For her, that means more than food: it also reflects her desire to be free and independent.

“I never live hand to mouth. I have done everything so that I can be free and independent,” she said.

Although Valdma said her life had reached autumn if judged by her age, she does not see that as a bad thing because autumn is her favourite season. She joked that growing older brings some wisdom and means avoiding certain foolish mistakes, although she remains a spontaneous person.

Vikerraadio host Owe Petersell suggested that Valdma had instead entered a new spring of life. Valdma accepted the description, saying that her hardest trials were undoubtedly behind her.

Her 15-year relationship ended in recent years, after which doctors discovered a small but highly dangerous and aggressive tumour during a health check. Valdma said she now saw a connection between the two events that she would not previously have expected.

“If that separation had not happened, I probably would not have taken that step. With my diagnosis, people usually turn up at the fourth stage. I had the first and I overcame it,” she said.

Valdma said she faced difficult periods with optimism, approaching each day with gratitude and looking forward to something exciting in life. She no longer thinks about the disease, she said, but about recovery.

Because the end of the relationship and the onset of the illness happened so quickly, she did not initially have time to process everything. She continued performing in the play “Rahamaa” while undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, despite severe pain.

“Life must not be left unfinished, and you must not remain grieving. I simply did not give myself that opportunity,” Valdma said.

She said the illness had nevertheless changed her perspective. Many things now bother her much less, and she has stopped trying to change other people.