Living flat and recovery after breast cancer
My reflections on being a topless model in Times Square, following my double mastectomy treatment for breast cancer. Yesterday a photo of me went up on a billboard in Times Square, New York, alongside nine photos of other women. It’s going to stay there for two weeks. I think that’s pretty remarkable. But what is … Continue reading #ShowUs more women who look like me
Nearly three years ago I had my first mastectomy. My left breast was removed because a seven centimetre tumour had taken up residence in my GG cup. Despite having had a lumpectomy three weeks previously, the tumour was too large and too dispersed and so the whole breast had to go. Being told that I … Continue reading Horror vs Happiness
At the weekend, Facebook reminded me that I started this breast cancer blog a year ago. When I wrote the first post, I had no idea what reaction I’d get – if any! I had no idea how blogs worked...and even less about search engine optimisation. I still haven’t worked that out and it did … Continue reading Weather report
What to do to commemorate the third anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis? It's today, by the way - 22nd January 2019. I decided to celebrate, rather than commemorate. I celebrated being alive and being one of the lucky 1 in 8. I celebrated life and family and flowers. I celebrated by getting inked. A … Continue reading No tits and a tat
Anger is fuel. We feel it and we want to do something. Hit someone, break something, throw a fit, smash a fist into the wall, tell those bastards. But we are nice people, and what we do with our anger is stuff it, deny it, bury it, block it, hide it, lie about it, medicate … Continue reading The one about anger
As the end of another year approaches, I've been in reflective mood. It's almost three years since my breast cancer diagnosis which means that, unbeknownst to me, at this moment in 2015 I had a tumour growing in my left breast. I'm a very different person now, both physically and emotionally. As I write I … Continue reading What a year
I'm aware that most of my posts have about breast cancer - my feelings and recovery, as well as my recent hip replacement surgery. So I thought that it was about time that I featured my flowers as they were originally going to be an equal part of this blog. This is going to be … Continue reading My year in flowers
October 30th – nearly the end of Pinktober, thank goodness. All month, I’ve been thinking about whether to write, what to write, when to write about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I have conflicting feelings about BCAM and so I’d almost decided not to write anything at all. Then yesterday I heard some very sad news … Continue reading Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Today I had the amazing, but surreal, experience of being the subject of the number 1, most watched video on the BBC News website. As ever, I was topless and talking about why I'm happy living flat. The video was a follow up to another first for me - broadcasting live on a national radio … Continue reading Choices, choices, choices
Last week was one of the saddest that I’ve experienced since being diagnosed with breast cancer. On Monday, Rachael Bland tweeted, with her usual humour and candidness, that she had only days left to live. Unfortunately, this wasn’t unexpected as she also recently disclosed that her cancer was untreatable and incurable. Then on Wednesday her … Continue reading Inspired by Rachael – telling it how it is
