kristarella.com

It’s October, it’s Breast Cancer Awareness month and we’re pink. Because of all these things and because my mum’s a wonderful lady she’s recounted her experience with breast cancer for us.

I’ve given the story it’s own page, partly because it’s long, but mostly because I want it to be a more permanent installation in my blog. I don’t want it to be one of the posts that get lost in the monthly archives. It’s something that’s important to me and I hope that it might impact others too.

Snippets from this story:

She opened the envelope in front of me and exclaimed, “I’m so sorry”! The words of the report stuck in my mind, “indicative of an invasive tumour”.

The difficult part - how to tell my children?

Perhaps, surprisingly, I never really felt angry. However, it did not stop the “what ifs”, and for a while, the tears flowed and my life flashed before me.

I think it is really important to have a goal or something to focus on at the end of treatment. The Sydney Olympics was mine.

I feel extremely blessed that I had caring, and competent doctors. I also had a wonderful support network in my family and friends… Not everyone is so fortunate…

Read the rest of my mum’s story!

Please also check out McGrath Foundation (I’ll be adding a link in the sidebar too). Mum pointed out the importance of having support when you have this disease, the McGrath Foundation tries to provide that in harder-to-reach places.