Cancer the Life Changing Pause: Wake Up and Live - by Anjana Nathwani

Today's blog post is written by Anjana Nathwani, a Business Psyhologist and two time cancer survivor. She believes that the pause of cancer opens new avenues to thrive in life...

Many cancer patients share their stories and there is a mutual message that the journey has changed their perspective on life. Amidst the treatment and chaos, there is a mental numbness, and this numb position feels comfortable! During my second journey of cancer, these 'numb moments' were pauses from the everyday thoughts of hopes, fears, anxieties and joyous moments. The 'pause of cancer' as I call it was an opportunity to 'Wake Up and Live! 'Waking up to purposeful Living is a continuous journey! For me there were three key phases.

1. Cultivating a zest for life. Energising the mind and the body to feel life is precious. Whilst I had always paid attention to diet and exercise - I became more alert and changed my diet. Green juices, avocado smoothies and one hour in nature are my ingredients as daily. This has continued and the revitalisation has helped me to redefine goals that are more purposeful and each day in life feels valuable. Meditation, mindfulness and yoga are also integrated to sustain my well being. I find my energy levels are balanced and the alertness supports me in making wise choices. This new self empathy and compassion is energising to explore new avenues that are more fulfilling.

2. Resilience! Resilience is said to be a quality that allows people to bounce back from knock downs. I found that my resilience transpired as the spirit of Entrepreneurship. The energy to live creates a sense of impatience and wanting immediate results. I dived into starting a retreat programme for cancer thrivers and survivors, soon to discover there was a learning phase and being resilient enabled me to take a tour to build my confidence and to deepen my resolve. I took on a role at a Business School, this experience was phenomenal. For 18 months I taught five different subjects, marked 500 assignments, worked as Postgraduate Academic Adviser and mentored 20 research students. Working to tight timelines, exceeding quality standards and engaging with different stakeholders were amongst the challenges. This academic journey enabled me to think differently, learn fresh perspectives, and more importantly that I have the confidence and courage to begin a new phase in my career. This fall I revitalised my business dreams and rebranded my business and will be launching new service lines in 2018. Aligning intent, purpose and action are crucial. This new focus opens fresh doors each day.  

3. Optimism! Being positive about today and feeding forward has become the motto! Curiosity is my key to being positive and each day I challenge myself to do something I have not done before. The benefits are immense.  The brain is kept active and the intrigue helps with taking risks. Being with people who nurture my optimism is important and I therefore choose networks and social activities with this mindset. Yoga is a passion and my yoga companions are my fuel for optimism face to face and remotely.

This December is very dynamic for me, as I manifest my goals. I am very grateful for the opportunities the recent 24 months have given me. I am applying my experience, newly learnt skills and zest to encourage organisations and people to BeHuman by promoting and facilitating Well Being.              

www.athenalearningacademy.com

Cancer: Dying for a Cure

Today's post is from John, who shares his personal experience of supporting a loved one through cancer and discusses how the way we approach cancer desperately needs to change.

Three months ago my wife died of ovarian cancer, after a three year battle to try to overcome her illness.  Her name was Beata and she was just 41 years old - a beautiful young woman with a beautiful spirit, full of love, kindness and excitement about the wonders of life.  We had been married for just six months when she died and were deeply in love - soul mates, best friends and a great team.

Like millions of others before her, her life and mine had been taken over by her cancer from the moment she was diagnosed.  Our lives revolved completely around doctor and hospital appointments, research into treatments and diets, and putting into practice healthy lifestyle changes that we hoped would make a difference.   She was forced to accept a punishing treatment schedule with systemically damaging side-effects and virtually no prospect of a cure, just to be able secure what little extra time she could.

She twice had major surgery, underwent twelve gruelling chemotherapy sessions that caused her a great deal of physical and mental suffering, participated in demanding clinical trials of experimental drugs, had ports and tubes implanted in her to make it easier to administer drugs and blood tests, and had numerous emergency visits to A&E to deal with life-threatening symptoms from her treatments.

My change in direction after a cancer recurrance

Today’s post is from one of our beneficiaries who has kindly agreed to share her story. Claire, 47, from Devon took an integrative approach after suffering a recurrence of cancer. 

I was diagnosed with stage 3b inflammatory breast cancer in October 2012. This is a rare form of breast cancer where there is not a lump, but a swelling and redness. I was completely in shock after my diagnosis, as it was also found that the cancer had spread to lymph nodes under my arm. My children were five and seven at the time, and I was so worried and scared that I would not be around to see them grow up.

I had seven rounds of chemotherapy soon after diagnosis, followed by a mastectomy and three weeks of radiotherapy. I then had herceptin every three weeks for two years.

Unfortunately this was not the end of the story. I had a recurrence in my neck two years later in October 2014, which was treated with six months of Kadcyla chemotherapy.