I’m an aunt (to four amazing nephews), that’s my most important role in life and where I do my best work! I’m an identical twin. I have an amazing family and network of friends. I work as a Director of Policy and Research at a not-for-profit [Australian Academy of the Humanities] – I’ve been there for 15 years. I get to work with amazing people and brightest minds, I’m lucky.
In every way. My life has been on ‘pause’ since the diagnosis and through treatment. We acted quickly, I was incredibly grateful to get into amazing surgical oncologist (Dr Kylie Snook), surgery was swift, then a period of recovery, then a waiting game as I underwent an Octotype test to determine whether I needed chemo. Game-changer results meant I could go straight to radiation (a course of daily treatments over three weeks). I’m now on hormone blockers.
Summon your people. Ask for help. Trust your feelings. My sisters, my Mum, and my extended family and friends have gotten me through. I don’t think of being on a ‘cancer journey’, it’s just life. From here on in I must keep using the tools I’ve developed since diagnosis and foremost that means looking after myself – all the things I didn’t make time for beforehand – regular check-ups, exercise, yoga, meditation. Medical science can only get you so far, it’s the technical fix, but you need all the human stuff to really sustain you.