Cancer Sucks, So Let’s Talk About it More: a New Publication
I don’t exactly know what I’m doing, but I think this space is needed
I have recently had a few of my articles about my past experience of cancer attract a lot of readers. I underwent successful treatment for (aggressive mediastinal) Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma when I was twenty eight/nine.
What especially moved me in the comments was the deep yearning so many people seemed to have to share their own experience of this crappy disease.
The outpouring of stories was overwhelming (in a good way) to me.
Sometimes I felt terribly alone with my own cancer, and that feeling lingers, even after years pass by.
Cancer is so difficult to navigate, and it often feels like all we are given are pat altruisms that do not offer real support or comfort. It is largely up to the person with cancer to come to terms with it and move on from it in whatever way they can.
For me it was far from easy, and I often felt like the fear of it coming back would never go away. It does fade, and we keep going, although it imprints on us in ways that can take years to grapple with.
And while each person’s experience of it is unique, we seem to connect over so many similarities we all…
