Hello there

Sarah, this is my first post as well and I'm responding to your message with one from the heart and I hope it gives you comfort and hope. Very early in my breast cancer journey, I attended a public lecture on lymphodema. The speaker was wonderful and inspiring, but the best part was meeting other women with heaps of different experiences. One older woman shared her story of having been diagnosed and treated with a radical mastetectomy over 30 years ago and she has led a wonderful life and encouraged me to live each day as it comes with the assuarance that it gets easier to live with cancer as time goes on. It's not been an easy journey and I've had my ups and downs and still do, but I just celebrated my 55th birthday and the 7th anniversary of my diagnosis and start of my treatment . This time 7 years ago, all I could manage when thinking of a future, was to reassure myself that I would be truly grateful if I saw my 49th birthday. That first year is now a distant blur, but I remember with each passing year it's like a huge milestone is passed...another year older and wiser and stronger.  So be kind to yourself and reach out when you are feeling alone, there are a lot of lovely people out there who will listen.

Go Girl