Member-only story
About Me — Reija Sillanpaa
A writer, teacher, cancer survivor and a keen cyclist.
Hi, my name is Reija, a Finn living in London. I was born and raised in a small town called Raahe on the north-west coast of Finland. I moved to London a month before my nineteenth birthday and though the plan was to stay here for a gap year, I’m still here, 25 years later.
I have had various roles in my life. I have sold donuts (which I hated) and books (which I loved), I have worked as a receptionist and as a personal assistant. In 2006 I trained as a primary school teacher and that is still the day job.
In March 2019 my life changed for ever. I was diagnosed with womb cancer. It was at stage 3c, which meant it had spread from the womb to surrounding lymph nodes. Within two weeks of the diagnosis I had surgery to remove my womb, ovaries, fallopian tubes, something my surgeon referred to as a fat pad (there is a proper medical term for it, but fat pad sounds better) and several lymph nodes.
Since they removed the fat pad, my sister and I joked that I got free lipsuction thrown in. And actually, I was slimmer after the surgery. Sadly, it didn’t last long…
