San­dra L Blood

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch 2020 and hat-trick Re­gion­al Queen of Queens Monarch (2022, 2023, 2024), Ter­ri Lyons, is no stranger to the spot­light. A tal­ent­ed, charis­mat­ic, and vi­brant prod­uct of en­ter­tain­ment roy­al­ty, she car­ries for­ward the lega­cy of her late moth­er, singer and per­former Dionne Phillips, and her fa­ther, 10-time Road March ti­tle hold­er and mul­ti­ple So­ca Monarch cham­pi­on Austin “Su­perblue” Lyons.

Be­yond the stage lights, though, Lyons is deeply ground­ed in fam­i­ly and faith. She is the proud moth­er of one—her son Matthias, who mir­rors her tal­ent and flair for per­for­mance. “He’s my bun­dle of joy and best birth­day gift, re­ceived on Sep­tem­ber 26–three days af­ter mine,” Lyons said, de­scrib­ing the spe­cial bond they share.

This year, she cel­e­brat­ed her birth­day in a sim­ple but mean­ing­ful way. “Apart from em­brac­ing love from my son, I showed off my four crowns in unique fash­ion and thanked God for life, tal­ent and health.”

That grat­i­tude for health runs deep for Lyons, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing Oc­to­ber, Ca­lyp­so His­to­ry Month in Trinidad and To­ba­go, which co­in­cides with In­ter­na­tion­al Breast Can­cer Aware­ness Month. While she con­tin­ues to ho­n­our her coun­try’s mu­si­cal tra­di­tions, Lyons is equal­ly pas­sion­ate about cham­pi­oning women’s health and well­ness.

“Re­gard­ing breast can­cer, my views are that it’s both phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al and mess­es with you psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly. It af­fects per­sons’ con­fi­dence, some­times even re­la­tion­ships. Even those who may have over­come it are still left with body im­age and self-love chal­lenges,” she said.

A woman of faith and com­pas­sion, Lyons ex­plained that she takes her own health se­ri­ous­ly. “I al­ways take reg­u­lar over­all check-ups and very of­ten ex­am­ine my­self at home, and I’m quite con­cerned about my ca­lyp­so sis­ters, and coun­ter­parts in gen­er­al be­cause men are al­so pos­i­tive­ly di­ag­nosed. Where this is con­cerned, there is noth­ing about hate here. There’s noth­ing about small-mind­ed­ness. It’s all about love, and a time comes when we must show gen­uine love for each oth­er.

“Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans in gen­er­al should have fre­quent checks. This may al­so help spread aware­ness and en­cour­age their friends, fans and fol­low­ers to do the same, which may help in ear­ly de­tec­tion,” ad­vis­es Lyons.

Lyons said her faith keeps her strong, but she al­so em­pathis­es deeply with those fac­ing ill­ness. “I strong­ly urge you to stay strong with prayers, but al­so ques­tion what can you re­al­ly say to some­one that is scared at that mo­ment for their life? Fam­i­lies and friends should give all the sup­port you can give, as no one likes to feel alone, es­pe­cial­ly in times they shouldn’t. I hear re­al-life sto­ries of those who are test­ed pos­i­tive, and every sec­ond of my life I thank God for grant­i­ng me health thus far.”

Her em­pa­thy is born out of ex­pe­ri­ence. “I’ve met some­one who had breast can­cer. She was a friend of a friend, and she had to have her breast re­moved, and I al­so know of some­one whom I knew per­son­al­ly who lost the fight against breast can­cer, leav­ing her kids be­hind. It was sad to see them in pain, and threw me in­to deep think­ing: how can I help peo­ple lead a healthy life apart from shar­ing pos­i­tive words, in­clud­ing prayers?”

Those mo­ments be­came a turn­ing point. “It threw me in­to a tail­spin,” Lyons ad­mit­ted, “be­cause words touch the men­tal, but I need­ed to do some­thing that can di­rect­ly im­pact the body’s or­gans in a healthy way”.

That dri­ve led to the cre­ation of her well­ness brand, I Am Li­on by Ter­ri Lyons, a line of health smooth­ies “in­spired by my want for every­one to feel and look their best”.

The brand name “Li­on” not on­ly plays on her sur­name, Lyons, but al­so re­flects her in­ner strength and her and her son’s thick nat­ur­al hair—“the li­on’s mane”.

Lyons col­lab­o­rat­ed with Fresh Press Café in San Fer­nan­do, a fe­male-found­ed, health-fo­cused out­let owned by spe­cial­ist Ki­ne­sha Sylvester, to craft the café’s first tri-colour smooth­ie. “The in­gre­di­ents are man­go (yel­low), car­rot (or­ange), ba­nana (green to yel­low), col­la­gen (white but changes ac­cord­ing­ly), spinach (green), el­der­ber­ry pow­der (dark pur­ple to black), and Greek yo­gurt (off-white/slight­ly yel­low­ish-white),” she ex­plained.

“It’s a full meal and con­tains vi­t­a­mins, min­er­als, an­tiox­i­dants, be­ta-carotene and oth­er nu­tri­ents that ben­e­fit im­mu­ni­ty, an­ti-in­flam­ma­to­ry, di­ges­tion, en­er­gy, and qual­i­ty of skin,” Lyons added.

For her, well­ness is not a trend—it’s a mis­sion. “Can­cer is a life-chang­ing dis­ease,” re­minds Lyons. “That’s why lifestyle changes should be a pri­or­i­ty and fore­front in our dai­ly lives. Apart from good nu­tri­tion, my oth­er pre­ven­tion ad­vice is reg­u­lar mam­mo­grams and ex­er­cise and to al­ways re­mem­ber to de­vel­op your per­son­al breast can­cer pre­ven­tion mot­to and re­peat it to your­self: ear­ly de­tec­tion, ear­ly pro­tec­tion, and ear­ly pre­ven­tion, which I ac­tu­al­ly say in every­thing when it comes to my health and my son’s.”

From the ca­lyp­so stage to her kitchen counter, Ter­ri Lyons con­tin­ues to use her plat­form and her pas­sion for good—to spread aware­ness, in­spire re­silience, and re­mind oth­ers that car­ing for one’s health is a dai­ly act of love.