A Letter To My Fellow Cancer Friends

Unless you’re colour blind, you may have noticed that this month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We are surrounded by a sea of damn pink ribbons everywhere we look. One of my daily highlights is watching The Ellen Show, but her whole pink “Ellen For The Cure” thing grates on me. Why? Because raising awareness of breast cancer and raising money to fund drug research is not taking us any closer to curing cancer. We are all aware of breast cancer, and a drug will never be the answer, because no drugs are exempt from side effects. Not one. If this month was about health awareness and raising money to support true healing, I would be all for it.

Every day my aim is to raise awareness of health and how we can all take responsibility for our own health. But today I want to speak specifically to my fellow cancer babes and dudes, and to those of you who are close to someone with cancer.

Being diagnosed with cancer is scary. It’s terrifying and it’s shitty. However, it is also an opportunity – an opportunity to either become empowered or disempowered. To either take control of your health and your future, or to hand control over to someone else. To either wade your way through the murky waters of messages and lessons and find all of the pieces of the magical puzzle, or to throw your hands in the air and say, “fix me”.

I chose the empowered path, and while it was the hardest decision I’ve ever made, I have never had any doubts that it was the right one for me. If you’re agonising over the same decision, this is what I want to tell you:

Dear You,
 
I am going to tell you what I wish someone had said to me when I was sitting in a doctor’s office over four years ago being told that I have an incurable cancer: You have nothing to be afraid of. Yes, you have cancer. But this does not mean that you are going to die. Quite the opposite, actually. This diagnosis is the wake up call you need to start living your life properly.
 
Our bodies speak to us via symptoms. When we continually ignore the symptoms (and don’t we all do that) our bodies will eventually resort to yelling at us. For you, and for me, this yell came in the form of a cancer diagnosis. It was our body’s last-ditch attempt to get us to start treating it with respect.
 
I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t comfortable playing the victim. Sure, there were many times when I caught myself wallowing with my ‘poor me’ pity party hat on, but after I allowed myself to really feel whatever it is I was feeling, the emotion passed on fairly quickly and was always replaced with a feeling of you-just-watch-me-prove-you-wrong empowerment. When I took back my power, and decided that I was the only one who could determine the state of my fate, I felt a surge of strength curse through me. I used this to power up my healing.
 
This one change in mindset was the catalyst for my success. It is what opened up my mind to possibilities, and what made me recognise the amazing healing ability of my own body. It is what led me to the pieces of the puzzle that I needed to find in order to heal. As soon as I made the decision to survive, doors opened in places I formerly perceived to be brick walls.
 
I also need to tell you this: there are always more options available to you than what even your doctor is aware of. Just start looking! We are so blessed to live in an era where all the information we need is available to us at the tap of a key. Google is your best friend, but you must use it wisely. Seek answers, but be discerning and only act on the answers that resonate with you. Listen to your intuition, and follow it. Your gut feeling will always have your back. Always.
 
Finally, the number one piece of wisdom I wish I had been given way back when fear had me in its cold, clammy grip is to act purely from a place of self love. Don’t do anything out of fear. If you need to make changes to your lifestyle (and remember if you’ve just been diagnosed with cancer, this is your body telling you that you need to), make them from a place of loving yourself. Don’t do anything because you are so afraid of dying. Only do things because you so want to live, and you want to live an amazing, vibrant, healthy, magical life.
 
I wish you all the best of everything. Be kind. Be brave. Be well.

Jess xx