April 27th 2017. A day I will never forget.
3 years and what has changed?
I am a cancer survivor.
3 years ago today, I was brought in to see Dr Emer Kelly who had the horrible job of telling me that I had Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. What the actual……F?? Within an hour of receiving the news I was sitting with Professor John Crown, one of the leading oncologists in the country and discussing the next steps and what to expect. And just like that the life I knew was gone.
3 years on and sometimes that day seems like it was yesterday but at the same time it feels like it was a lifetime ago. Which I suppose it was. A different life ago. A different Niamh ago.
But like I have said many times before – different is not a bad thing. It’s just as it says, different! Since recovery I have learned to look after myself more, to put myself at the top of my to do list, to go after things in life that I had been putting on the back burner due to money and time and a lot of other silly reasons! I’m not going to sit here and say that I am glad I went through cancer to get this little wake up call but if anything I have taken the silver lining from what I went through and ran with it! I have used my experience to try and better myself. 3 years on, I have good days and bad days. The bad days are few and far between now and I am blessed to have a support circle around me that I can lean on if and when I need to!
I never expected to have to face the big C but I am proud of myself for having faced it head on and beating it. For me it’s important to mark these days – little cancerversaries I call them – and they help remind me of how far I have come and what I am capable of.
Stay safe out there everyone and especially in these uncharted times, just one foot in front of the other. That’s all we can do!
