So… what the actual feck.
Three weeks ago I found out I’ve got breast cancer again. Yep, ding-ding round two!
Some of you will remember, and some of you won’t know, but 18 years ago I was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer at the age of 36. What followed was the full works: mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, scan after scan, tamoxifen, Herceptin and 12 years of Zoladex… the lot.
Somewhere in the middle of all that, I started writing a blog called Living with Molly (Molly Dancer = cancer).
What I didn’t expect was how many people it would help. The messages, the comments, the people who said it got them through their own diagnosis or someone close to them going through it… that made it all feel worthwhile.
And now, 18 years later… here we are again.
This time it’s in the other boob, and a different type of cancer – seemingly unrelated – what are the odds?!
You honestly couldn’t make it up. I’d say you couldn’t write it, but clearly, here I am doing exactly that.
Over the last three weeks I’ve gone back and forth on whether to do this again. Life has moved on. There are a hundred other ways to share things now, like podcasts, videos, social media, but for me, and for a lot of the people I know, writing still feels like the right place.
It’s where I can be honest and unfiltered (dangerous I know!) and if nothing else, it saves me repeating myself twenty times over.
So… here we go again.
I’m not going into loads of detail tonight. Tomorrow I’ve got an appointment at Wythenshawe Hospital to talk through next steps and what surgery might look like, so I’ll share more once I know more.
For now, this is just the start.
A new chapter.
A new blog.
A second book I never planned on writing.
And for those who didn’t know me first time round — there was a whole other version of this story 18 years ago. Here is the link for anyone who wants to read it.
But this one… this is now.
Sam x
Living with Molly: Here We Go Again! 