.CW... cancer/death as well as life/joy
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Today I assembled an afternoon tea as a treat for myself... because it is twelve years today since my cancer diagnosis, and that seems worth marking.
Curiously, one of the sandwiches I bought was egg and cress... the same flavour as I bought for lunch on 23rd August 2010, except that one was from Tescos and this one from Sainsbury's!!
I enjoyed my treat, but I also found myself recalling the feelings and words of that, now long ago, day.
This evening, scrolling through a social media feed, I saw the sad news that someone I 'met' online all those years ago died today of secondary breast cancer. That's the ugly, unpallatable, inconvenient, truth... around a third of the women I've come to know along the way have died of their cancer.
Which means it is all the more important to celebrate life - afternoon tea for one is just a small part of doing just that.
If you are kind enough to read this stuff, pleaase look after yourself. Take any screening offered; check your cheackable bits; and see your doctor about anything that doesn't seem right. It could save your life.
Comments
So glad that you have come through this journey - and yes, it is important to mark the day with tea and cake . And your words are wise - far better to get checked out promptly than ignore the 'odd' thing and hope it will go away. When I had an 'issue' in 2020, it proved to be nothing sinister - but the staff at the Breast Unit said I should not say "I am sorry to have bothered you with this, as it's nothing". They pointed out that if it HAD been something, it would have been caught early, and they would rather spend a morning testing and reassuring, than months of gruelling treatment because it had been left too late.