‘Walking with The Breast Cancer Beast’ is the title of my first ever blog. If I’m honest I’ve wanted to write a blog for a long time but never felt I had anything interesting to say and then suddenly WHAM, I have breast cancer! Pretty shitty news for anyone to receive, but seeking out the positives, it has given me something to write about. On a more serious note, I genuinely don’t care if anyone reads this or not, (if they do and it is helpful for them, I’ll be honoured) but I do have several personal reasons for doing it as well.

Firstly, I think it will be cathartic, a way of processing things as I go along, of forcing myself to recognise and acknowledge my fears, hopes, anger and anything else it may make me feel. I also hope there will be some humour along the way, there’s been a little already and I’m going to need some more to get me through!

Secondly, I am a regular user of social media and I like nothing more than a memory popping up on my timeline, but it doesn’t feel like the place to share these details, I don’t want to force cancer onto other people’s timelines whilst they’re having their breakfast, it might be too hard for them or too close to home.

Finally, I have some lovely friends and family abroad and from the very kind messages I’ve received so far, I think they will want to know how I’m getting on and this feels like the perfect forum to let them know.

So, that’s the why and for those that may read this who don’t know me (yet) here is a little bit about me.

I am 48 years old (apparently relatively young in breast cancer terms – I’ll take that) and have a fantastic husband Dave and two gorgeous boys Max (aged 12) and Joe (aged 10). It was my oldest boy Max who nicknamed the cancer ‘The Breast Cancer Beast’ or BCB as he calls it. I think it’s his way of avoiding having to say the scary word and to be honest I see where he’s coming from.

I love life, people and experiences and I have always tried to make the most of every opportunity. I do everything fast – eat, talk, walk and drive (not necessarily the best option I know) I can’t help it. I’m organised and productive and like to plan, oh how my life is going to change for the foreseeable future……

I’ve entitled this blog ‘Walking with The Breast Cancer Beast’ as metaphorically I think that is what I’ll be doing. I’ll be walking hand in hand with it for a while and then hopefully we will reach a cross roads. It will go one way and I will go the other, with the hope being that our paths don’t cross again in the future.  It is not lost on me that when it leaves me, it will undoubtedly grab someone else’s hand for the next part of its journey and that makes me sad but I can only concentrate on my own journey right now.

Over the next few days I will go right back to the beginning, until I catch myself up to present day. Feel free to join me or just dip in and out as you please, just one disclaimer to make…..all grammatical errors are entirely my own!