“Look around you and appreciate what you have because this time next year it wont be the same!”

I was 37 years old when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2015.  Since then I have been in the unfortunate position of sitting in from of consultants being told I have cancer a further 3 times.

It has taken me a long time to finally decide on creating this blog.  I feel I am ready now to share my experience and hope that I can raise awareness and share the knowledge I have gained about Breast Cancer.  If my blog prompts one of you to go and get something checked out then it is all worthwhile to me.

You have possibly come across my blog because you have found a lump but aren’t overly concerned about it.  However you are doing what everyone of us are guilty of and that’s googling our symptoms. You may be waiting on a Breast clinic referral, or have recently been  diagnosed with breast cancer yourself or are concerned about a family member or friend who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Well hopefully you have come across my blog for a reason.

I hope that by sharing my journey of the last 18 months which to say has been a rollercoaster is a complete understatement, you will realise you are not alone when you have those days or moments when you get angry at why this has happened to you.  Fear of dying engulfs you, or when the guilt swells up at putting your family through this ordeal. However if you haven’t yet realised it there does come a day of acceptance.

Throughout my blog I am going to delve into the specifics of breast cancer and hope that you can learn something new.  My personal opinion is that the Pink Campaign makes the subject of breast cancer all fluffy and pink and I and many other women I have met on my journey actually find some of the fundraising events insulting.  Having had a double mastectomy with no reconstruction at the age of 37 to save my life not by not choice I think people need to be a bit more considerate for those women who have had a more difficult journey than the Pink Campaign currently portrays breast cancer to be.

Throughout my blog I will refer to “my previous life” and “the old me” this is my life before breast cancer because any of you who have been through this knows that you are never the same person after a cancer diagnosis.  I feel that something inside me died that day, however I believe it has made me a better person.  I look around me now and appreciate everything in life from the seasons, the birds, the scenery, the taste of food, seeing a new day the list goes on.  However to get to this stage it has taken me many months and I have been to the depths of anxiety, fear and sadness.

Here goes I hope you get something out of it…….