So like it or not Adam is shielding for 4 weeks with me because I have recently been diagnosed with DCIS which is an early form of breast cancer. I am due to have a mastectomy on the 18th of August and then will be having reconstructive surgery a few months  after this. 

This diagnosis is shit to be honest but strangely at this moment in time I feel ok about it. I have the best family and friends around me and I know I will be ok. Cancer of any kind is very scary, your immediate response is to fear the worst and to worry about the what ifs and why me. But I strangely feel quite lucky, because despite all these things I have hope. I have hope because there has been so much research that I am lucky to have had the cancer spotted early; I have hope because the research has shown us how it can be treated; that the success and survival rate is pretty good. I know people loose their lives to breast cancer every day and that is devastating; but I have hope that for me I am able to be treated and live a long and fruitful life; unlike the hundreds of children every year who are diagnosed with DIPG. The second the doctor confirms that diagnosis ‘hope’ is gone for these children and their families. The life is taken from their child’s body bit by bit, day by day and there is no hope; just knowledge that they are going to die very soon. It’s horrible, it’s painful and it’s not fair. 

 I am lucky that I will hopefully not have to have chemo or radiotherapy; just the thought filled me with fear; yet Islas and many other DIPG children’s’ bodies are subject to these treatments.   Not as a cure but as a way to try and slow down the inevitable; with the side effects 1000000 times worse than for us adults (which for adults is horrific).  Families deserve the hope that I have after hearing my diagnosis; they deserve kinder treatment options for their children and they deserve a cure. 

As for my children, Islas cousins; they are working on a time machine so that when we find that cure we can go back and give it to Isla (their words not mine). 

So whilst I am having pre and post operative shielding,  Adam is taking on a challenge to raise some money for the IslaStones Foundation whilst also looking after me! Because if you didn’t know Isla was our niece.  Thank you for reading this and please donate what you can to support Adam’s challenge for Isla.

About Isla:

Isla Tansey, a 7-year old girl from Hinckley, she was diagnosed with DIPG in October 2017. She & her family started a phenomenal worldwide stone decorating movement called #Islastones in March 2018. which brings communities together worldwide.Sadly, Isla passed away on 10 July 2018. Isla’s family wants to share and raise awareness of this untreatable childhood cancer as there is very little funding into this area of research despite 80% of cases of cases of all brain tumours being in children between the ages of 5-9 years.