As you get older you gather new friends from all parts of life - school, uni, work, having kids.Where would you be without your friends? Never did I think I would need them more than when I was told I had cancerBut they are one of the best things to happen to me since my diagnosis just over three years ago.
To know I have a whole community out there, old friends and new, looking out for me and just being there is hard to put into words. Offer some practical help. Take some food round, offer to pick the kids up from school, drive them to their appointments. Maybe it's not keeping me alive, but this support is definitely helping me live with a lot less stress - and that comes with all sorts of health benefits, cancer or no cancer.I have an awesome talent for not washing up, I appear incapable of remembering to hang the washing out and cooking something that actually tastes OK is beyond me.So when friends have stepped in to offer me practical help, I have always been quick to say a big 'YES', and a massive 'thank you' to follow.
It helps me make peace with the idea that if I do eventually die, I can rest safe in the knowledge that I have left no stone unturned, no treatment possibility ignored. For me, an evening laughing with friends over a few bottles of wine, is sheer bliss. It gives me that rare chance to forget, just for a tiny moment that cancer is in charge.It's an important reminder that cancer doesn't dictate, I'm not defined by my disease.
bowelbabe This is a great article as always. You really know how to articulate what having cancer feels like. Enjoy your weekend. 🌸 Love and hugs x
bowelbabe Deborah - my social media pal- you don’t know how much you have helped all of us who’ve had a cancer diagnosis - and it’s all relative - stage 2 nearlystage 3. So in the dark days - many years on - I know that dark C might come back to me . And you’ll be my inspiration