First official blog post

Hi there,

I just wanted to tell you a little bit about myself and why I started this blog 🙂

I’m so new to blogging and really haven’t a clue what I’m doing yet, but had this massive urge to start sharing my thoughts and poetry with you all. I’m a creative person that just wants to make sense of my life and this crazy world we live in. I try to do this through poetry, photography and writing the odd song here and there. You can hear some tracks I’ve sung on, on SoundCloud.

I’m a recent graduate from an undergraduate Psychology degree and I’m an advocate for a youth cancer charity called “You Can“. This charity is helping to build specialist cancer facilities throughout Australia for 16-30 year old youths dealing with cancer. Survival rates for this age group can diminish by up to 50%, they no longer fit under pediatric care in hospital systems and so have less access to clinical trials and are cared for amongst the dying elderly, giving them a not so pleasant environment to be fighting for their lives. I’m also an ambassador for “I had Cancer.com” which is creating an online platform to help link young cancer suffers over the internet so they can connect and speak to real people and hopefully not feel so alone in their diagnosis and journey.

I’ve currently survived 4 cancers, the first when I was 9 years old where I was diagnosed with Non-hodgkins Lymphoma and underwent surgery and 6 months of chemotherapy. Again when I was 24 years old with a Wilm’s tumour (normally in 1-5 year old children)  where I had a radical nephrectomy, radiation and another 6 months of chemo and then again at 32 with a Papillary Carcinoma (follicular variant) which then relapsed once. I’m currently 33 and still waiting on a completely clear result from my doctors and must say I’ve experienced some pretty intense and interesting things over the course of my treatments and just through life in general. Ever since my second diagnosis I have been passionate about helping other people still going through their cancer journey. I feel there is a great need for a better understanding of after care once treatment stops. Life does not just go back to normal like after recovering from a cold or broken leg. There are many physical, psychological and emotional scars that can take sometime to heal and even longer without the right understanding and support as people transition from patient to survivor.

I’m going to use this blog as a means to be open with people and share my journey so far and where its lead me to today and into the future. I hope that some of what I say is useful to anyone out there that might need some insight into some of this kind of thing and that some just find it entertaining if you enjoy poetry, creative writing and the way I choose to natter about my thoughts haha. Though it’s more all about the human condition, even if the topic of overcoming cancer isn’t of interest to you. We all struggle, we all have wins, my posts will be about the human spirit and everything it can overcome. Sending out a whole lot of love, & hoping I get some back.
Big hugs, now lets get personal lol xoxoxo