Never give up!
While I was sitting in the waiting area of the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre oncology practice earlier this week, the lady beside me started a discussion. She has been coming here every six months for the past 15 years for her follow-up appointments for breast cancer. Like me, her breast cancer is positive for hormone and HER2 receptors. She had a double mastectomy, received chemo- and radiation therapy, and has been on Tamoxifen for 10 years. All of this she shared with me with a smile; her eyes were bright, and she radiated positivity. Her journey was not without hardship. She gained 36 kg during her first two years of treatment and struggled with the drugs' side effects. She would get anxious in the weeks leading up to her follow-up appointment. "Even though I've been in remission for 10 years, the fear never really goes away," she told me. "But I had to keep going because there is so much to live for." Her message came to me at a crossroads in my b...