Feelings of guilt are one of the many ways that having cancer can have an impact on your mental health. Upon diagnosis, in a state of fear and shock, many of us naturally question ourselves. What did I do to make this happen? Worse still, you see others searching your …
The ogre on your shoulder; PTSD after breast cancer. One day you are relaxing comfortably in your living room reading a book, and out of nowhere a bomb is dropped on your house. Everything around you is unrecognisable, your body hurts, your hair is burned to a singe. You sit …
The link between sugar and breast cancer. Does sugar cause breast cancer? Should you stop eating sugar if you have or had breast cancer? This is one of the biggest question marks hanging over patients and survivors of the disease. The general advice at the moment is that there is …
How to deal with the fear of breast cancer recurrence. The fear of breast cancer recurrence is something that everyone who has had the disease impact their life must face. No matter the type, stage, grade or your individual circumstances unfortunately there is never a 0% chance of it coming back. So until our tirelessly …
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My 3 lifestyle do’s and don’ts since having breast cancer. As a survivor of triple negative breast cancer, the questions I get asked most by curious new sufferers and survivors of the disease are about my lifestyle now. Of course what they are really asking at the core of this …
Broccoli sprouts and breast cancer. Broccoli sprouts and their amazing health benefits have been widely studied in recent years. They have been shown to have a significant preventative role in some cancers, including our old friend breast cancer. As a triple negative breast cancer survivor I’m always interested in learning …
“Radical acceptance” to deal with breast cancer and the fear of recurrence. After having experienced a diagnosis of breast cancer, and the whirlwind of treatment that ensues, many of us are left suffering with PTSD, depression and anxiety. Radical acceptance teaches you to understand and manage these normal but sometimes …
Planning your pregnancy after breast cancer. More and more women under the age of 45 are being diagnosed with breast cancer. Alarmingly the percentage of all breast cancers that occur in younger women has increased from 5% to 9% in just the past 5 years. The possible reasons for this …
Pregnancy after breast cancer; my story. I was diagnosed with stage 2b triple negative breast cancer in April of 2019 when I was 35 years old. At the time my only child, my daughter Ayla, had just turned 6 months old. 3 years later, at age 38, I was blessed …
When you are first diagnosed with breast cancer your life immediately changes in a thousand ways. Some of those changes are huge and blatant. Some are subtle and almost imperceptible. One unexpected and unwelcome shift that happens is the language people use towards you. You start consistently hearing words like …
Chemotherapy; my top lifestyle and self care tips for staying physically strong and nurturing your mental well being throughout. So we all know that chemotherapy isn’t really a spa treatment. But with breast cancer being the most common cancer among women, around 1 in 8 of us will experience it …
Breast cancer; answering the questions I had at the time of my diagnosis. An honest chat with myself now the seas are calmer. When you are first diagnosed with breast cancer, the first thing that hits you is, unsurprisingly, a wave of intense fear. Shortly after that, perhaps even as …