Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, a year I will never forget, a year that has moulded me, changed me, given me an understanding of how your life can change in a blink and how you can find out in the very worst way the best and worst in those with whom you share your life.
A year ago today my roller coaster journey with cancer started, not that we knew it then, and perhaps I was a little blind in what was happening in thinking everything is ok, in ignoring my symptoms but I was on track to being diagnosed with a Soft Tissue Sarcoma, a group of cancers that make up only 1% of all diagnosed cancers each year in the UK of which there are then approximately 50 subtypes.
No one will never truly understand the emotion and how soul destroying it is to be told you have cancer but it really is like the most recent Macmillan advert. Everything sort of clouds over and feels all very surreal and hazy, then it was almost as if my world was pulled from under my feet. There you are not long out of University, starting to make your way in the world and suddenly this massive hurdle is placed in front of you.
From friends, to employers I've seen and heard the best things and the worst about both from various support networks, I know now who my true friends are, and I will be forever grateful to them and my family for all they have done for me and continue to do for me.
My last set of scans were all good, so now properly begins the task of getting my life back on track. Cancer will always be part of my life, but I hope with each day, month and year that passes that it will continue to be a smaller part of it.
