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Dawn’s colon cancer story
To think about when my story began, I guess it would have to be New Year’s Eve 2000. I went to a New Year’s Eve party in Connecticut (where I’m from) with my mother and step-father. That night my mom wasn’t feeling well. When I look back at the pictures, I can see that she did not look healthy. After the holiday, Mom saw her primary care physician who treated her for bronchitis and pneumonia. Early February came and her condition did not improve so they sent her to the hospital for x-rays and scans. It turned out that she had small cell lung cancer. Mom hated doctors and was…
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Intuition or paranoia?
Ever since cancer came along, my reading list changed to include books talking about diet, exercise, mental health, breathing etc etc in order to ‘stay in remission’. I am not so naive to believe that these factors will keep me in remission and I am fully aware that cancer can rear its head no matter what I do; that’s the scariest part. One book delved into ‘intuition’ and how our body uses its intuition to know when something is wrong or right for us. I knew something was wrong with me pre diagnosis because I also had physical pain, signals telling me that something is wrong. The hard part was…
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Understanding ‘mets’
When we talk about cancer, we use stages to determine where the cancer cells have traveled. When I was first told that I had cancer, the doctor said I had a tumour in my bowel and the cancer had traveled to my liver and maybe my lung (can’t remember which one now and it hadn’t, thank goodness) so bascially my cancer had mestastasized, quite simply put, it had spread from the primary source (my bowel/colon) through lymphatic nodes and to other organs. So, when people with cancer talk about mets (also known as lesions) or in my case liver mets, they are saying a form of tumour in another organ.…
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Angelique Lynch – Breast Cancer Survivor
We all have to fight for something in our lives. I have always had a fighting spirit and one of my proudest moments was when I achieved by black belt, 2nd Dan in Karate. I also received my Protea colours multiple times and competed at various World Championships. After working in London, U. K. I landed a job at AutoTrader back in South Africa and at the age of 28, having just been selected to be on the company’s Management Development Programme, I was faced with my toughest fight yet. I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Stage 3 HER2+ Breast Cancer. At that moment my life was…
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Drika Louw – Breast Cancer Survivor
I named my cancer journey the roller coaster as I felt like I was on a roller coaster from the moment it all started. With a roller coaster you have the 4 parts: Being strapped in and waiting (15/05/2017) The climb (26/05/2017) – The longest part of the roller coaster The free fall (26/06/2018) The stopping moment Being strapped in and waiting: The first part of my roller coaster started in the first week of May 2017. Just before my Dad’s 50th birthday. I noticed some small changes and felt a lump in my breast while doing a self-examination. I knew I had a strong family history with…
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Steve Kelly – Breast Cancer Survivor “Everyday is a gift. Live life to the fullest.”
Detection In December 2018 my partner Sandy noticed something unusual in my right breast. There was a lump behind the nipple. The lump was not visible from the outside; however, if you looked carefully, you could see that the nipple was slightly inverted. This was painless, and I did not feel ill. Diagnosis I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Grade 3 Breast Cancer. The lump was a ductal carcinoma, approximately 17mm in diameter, or roughly the size of a marble. This is a common type of breast cancer; the standard international treatment protocols apply. Surgery I had surgery the following week, as the primary treatment. The procedure is known as…
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Consistency and the Two Big C’s
We all know that consistency is key and that most our results in fitness and nutrition come from this consistency but how do we stay consistent when life keeps throwing us curve balls? I have struggled with consistency in fitness and have been guilty of program hopping (you should see all the PDF’s in my iBooks folder) even though I would tell myself ‘Just stick to something Jo! ‘ After the birth of my daughter, I had a period (2016) of consistency with the BBG program and lost my baby weight. I was also running and committed enough to run a half marathon. Even in 2017 after I settled back…
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Liver Resection and Recovery
It’s been a while but I have finally kicked myself into gear and written a post!! It’s a long one but every detail highlights my journey, ups and downs…… If you have been following my story, you should know that I went into remission or at least it seemed that way in May and if you are just reading my journey for the first time, I will try to explain as much as I can! I had a great clinical response to my chemotherapy and the six lesions that I had in my liver appeared to have calcified. Scans of any kind are not 100% accurate, a cancer cell is…
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Martha’s story – La historia de Martha
My name is Martha, I am 48 years old and I live in Florida. I was diagnosed with colon cancer on December 20, 2017 at age 45; this is my story. I am the mother of two beautiful young children and the wife of a wonderful man. The fourth of five sisters created by good parents, especially my mother. My life changed in December 2017 when what I thought was a simple problem of exhaustion turned into a nightmare. It was during a very important time, my daughter was turning 15 which is a tradition for young Latino women, the celebration of her 15 years. We were preparing a…
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Tommy’s story
My name is Tommy. I am 32 years old and live in Orlando, Florida. I was diagnosed with stage lV Colon Cancer in May of 2018 at the age of 30, which was the age my late grandfather was when he was first diagnosed with colon cancer. My journey begins in early 2018 when I began to notice that I was rapidly losing weight. I was not working out on a daily basis and was not dieting. I was also having night sweats pretty much nightly. I went to see my primary care physician and explained my symptoms. They had me do a blood panel, which yielded negative results. They…
