Emma Smith

Negotiating the Cancer Maze

It's never going to be something that you expect. Old, young, middle age, a tiny child, mother, father, sister, brother, aunty, uncle, grandpa, grandma, neice, nephew, friend... we are all in it together because it's an unfair happenstance of life. The moment you hear the news differs for everybody. We are all unique and how we react to the news can have an insight into how we respond to the treatment psychologically. I personally had the mindset of "Right, just tell me everything I need to do from now to get past this," while trying to choke back a sob at the unexpected nature of being told it's worse than we thought. Over the past nine months of dealing with two lymphomas — Non-Hodgkin's and Hodgkin's — at 23 I have mentally collected tidbits of information, knowledge and advice because that's how I naturally handle challenges, so I would like to share these with others who find themselves in this situation and swimming in what often feels like a bottomless pool.