My Story: This is Recovery

Let’s talk about recovery after cancer. It's hard.

I am deeply grateful for the care I received during my cancer journey. At the same time, recovery opened up questions and challenges that don’t always have a clear place within medical care. Cancer care focuses on treatment, and rightly so, but recovery after treatment is a complex process.

For me, recovery also coincided with being a new mum.

With all of this in mind, I have found challenges in rebuilding physically, mentally and socially, and I realised there is a gap in support in this process. However, I feel fortunate that my medical background gave me a foundation to start rebuilding. So this gap is one I'd like to bridge.

Before being diagnosed, my perception was that the most challenging part of cancer would be “during cancer.” This is true, but in all honesty, I have found life after cancer incredibly tough. It doesn’t feel like it’ll ever be “after” (although I’ve been told it will). I move forward with the awful experience and all the things it has changed.

However, I have a gift - cancer forces a perspective on life that I never understood until I went through it.

So, I’m writing this in a life that looks different now, one with a focus on learning to live well after cancer. But what happens next is not a linear journey.

The reality is that facing death at 33 completely and suddenly changed the way I think about everything. It rearranged what matters and shattered all I knew as normal into a million pieces. This sounds dramatic but it really is incomprehensible until it happens. I felt lonely and disconnected from the world and people I know, but also had an intense desire to live and feel better. I do not want to waste any more time.

In writing The Healing Journey, I hope to reconnect.

I will focus on what has helped me in my recovery as I look at life beyond cancer. Whilst the journey of recovery in any form can be difficult, and I acknowledge that, I didn't want to create a space that feels heavy or overwhelming. I want it to feel calm, supportive and hopeful.

I like to think of wellness as balance in all aspects of life; this is not a space for extremes.

I’m not suggesting people use this as definitive guidance, but I hope that my personal experience of cancer and clinical background can inform the content I create, and the community I reach.

Love,

Tara x