Cancer Reared It's Ugly Head...
Ongoing wellness journey…
Cancer reared its ugly head again in our family. And this time it was on me.
It’s taken me 18 months to firstly heal, then recover, build up my strength and take the courage to share my cancer experience in the hope it can help others.
The invisibility of chronic stress can impact your mind and body so drastically that it doesn’t matter how “healthy” your diet and exercise regime are; if you neglect to relieve the stress on your mind & body then it will catch up with you in many ways. One of those ways is cancer.
In November 2021 I had a mastectomy and 25 lymph nodes removed from my body. I had been diagnosed with PR & ER positive DCIS breast cancer.
What had happened? A lump that had initially been found benign a few years ago, had turned aggressive after a series of life events and traumas in the short space of just 18 months. Do not underestimate external events that can seriously impact your health and build your stress levels. Even if you think you are managing fine, your body will tell you otherwise in total certainty.
What were these life events and traumas? Well for me, it was a sudden rollercoaster of many things all in a short space of time and mostly beyond my control. It started with a covid-caused job redundancy for my husband Chris in Macau which then impacted the choice of where our daughter Lauren could go to school. We decided to move back to the UK and send her to boarding school so she could at least be settled for her GCSE years and not be impacted by where we might settle for a new job. As we made the move to the UK, the first covid lockdown hit and Lauren started her new school online without meeting any of her classmates or teachers in person for more than two months. All the while we were all staying at my nephew and wife’s home due to covid restrictions. The changes were already big and the compromises were on all sides.
When that lockdown lifted, we moved further south to my eldest brother’s place. This is the home where I grew up during my UK school and college days. Here, we focused on the health of my other brother Michael, who had stage 4 lung cancer. Sadly after visiting and taking care of him at his home in Portugal for a few months, he died in July 2021 shortly after his 60th birthday. None of us were expecting to lose him so quickly and were all completely devastated.
After his funeral, many of us became infected with covid and my husband Chris caught it severely. He had to be hospitalised for 14 days on oxygen as it seriously impacted his breathing. I was unable to visit him for all this time and could only video call twice as he needed to be well enough to use his phone. My daughter Lauren and I also caught covid and had all the symptoms including losing our sense of smell and taste for many months. During the same time, Chris’mum had a bad fall in Hong Kong and broke her pelvis. She needed surgery and was hospitalised for 2.5 months with very restricted visits from family members. It was an incredibly stressful time every way we turned.
Hence by September 2021, I noticed the physical lumps in my breast had significantly grown. After having a mammogram and biopsy I was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly afterwards. This was a total shock to the system, as all that time I thought I had been managing my stress levels well. But stress is called a silent killer for a very good reason and chronic stress will eat away at your health at any opportunity.
So, although I was eating well and exercising, I had neglected to care for myself as I was too occupied with caring for others. I was not able to sleep well and everything was further compounded with the onslaught of peri-menopausal symptoms, especially night sweats and blood sugar spikes. All of this was exacerbated with stress and anxiety of no home to settle in, no job for both Chris and I, not being able to return to Hong Kong due to the closed borders, the loss of my brother, the impact on Lauren and so the list goes on.
In November 2021 I then had the mastectomy.
When I was researching treatment and post surgery treatments, I had lots of conversations with my surgeon, oncologist and the breast care nurses within the NHS. As many of you know, I believe in integrative and holistic treatments as much as possible but I found it hard to find resources such as an integrative oncologist from whom I could seek advice. In the UK there are far too few of them with long waiting lists for those that are there.
I knew that I really didn’t want to do chemotherapy and for my type of cancer I could do The Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test which is used in two ways: firstly to help doctors figure out a person's risk of early-stage, oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer coming back in a part of the body away from the breast (distant recurrence); and secondly to help figure out if a person will benefit from chemotherapy. Thankfully my score came back quite low and my oncologist agreed that chemotherapy would not benefit me. I was so relieved.
Instead, I had 5-day intensive radiation therapy about 6 weeks post surgery. Pre-surgery I also saw a nutritional therapist who was a 25-year breast cancer survivor herself, and she helped me dig deeper on a cellular level to do nutrigenomics and hormone testing. This was fascinating as I discovered so many new things about my body. One crucial piece of information was that I was missing a gene and could not methylate or detoxify alcohol or caffeine well, meaning that these toxins were staying in my body far longer than they should. I have now been alcohol free for over two years and physically feel so much better.
As part of my recovery process, I did regular weekly acupuncture, Hyperthermic Ozone & Carbonic Acid Transdermal Technology (HOCATT), daily Qi Gong exercises, stretching, daily walks and also took personalised supplements. Although the NHS were amazing with all their services and resources, there was one organisation that helped me find out far more about my integrative care options and support. This lifeline was Yes to Life, the UK’s integrative cancer care charity. Here I managed to find an integrative oncologist who gave me a second opinion on information I wanted, plus new useful advice and many other valuable resources.
In the past year and a half, I’ve been listening to my body more than ever, trialling and really seeing the response of how certain foods make me feel physically and mentally. I’ve discovered how gluten, sugar and dairy have made me feel less well, more fatigued and heavy and how they affect my skin with rashes and irritations, and also make my joints more inflamed and stiffer. I’ve discovered important factors such as how my environment impacts how much exercise I do, and how a morning routine helps to ground me for the day, and how a good night’s sleep is so precious. I’ve also learnt that who I choose to surround myself within my inner circle, and intentionally seeking to try new things – all hugely impact my levels of stress.
During these times of trial and challenges I have been incredibly blessed with some amazing supportive family and friends, especially my husband Chris and daughter Lauren. And since then, I’ve gone back to my integrative nutrition health coaching, started a part time job with some great colleagues, and have such a loving church family around me!
One constant factor that has been such a blessing has been my faith. God’s presence in my life has been THE most powerful factor of my well-being. In Jesus, I fear nothing, and know that I am so loved. There is this peace that surpasses all understanding.
I’m sharing this with you today as I have a group of friends who wish to get fitter and healthier, and each have committed to doing 100km of running / walking in the month of May to raise funds for Yes To Life.
We want to build awareness in those people who have been diagnosed with cancer that there is hope, real hope, and that decisions do not have to be driven by fear, but instead can be helped and supported by seeking more informed choices and resources for cancer treatment and care.
I know my journey to wellness is still ongoing and I need to do my best to prevent the cancer from returning. I’m learning all the time and hopefully better equipping myself and helping to equip others too in what I learn.
Yes to Life provides support, information and financial assistance to those with cancer seeking to pursue complementary therapies as part of their overall care. Yes to Life is the UK’s integrative cancer care charity.
If you would like to know more about Yes To Life, or would like to make a donation to this great organisation, please click on this link 4 x 100km Run / Walk in May
Thank you for reading my story, it’s taken a lot of courage to share this with you all. I really hope it encourages you to prioritise the time to look after yourself properly and know how important you really are.
With love and blessings,
Kelly