I have just been contacted indirectly about appearing in a newspaper feature in a local paper. I have mixed feelings about whether or not to do it and would welcome some feedback.
Two years ago I appeared in an article in ‘Essentials’ magazine about overcoming breast cancer. In this particular article I was portraying myself as ‘moving on’ and very confident that my breast cancer experience was behind me. I had just completed the a 5K run, got much fitter and had lost 7 kilos and felt great. The local paper has contacted ‘the charity’, looking for people who have positively overcome BC. They have contacted me asking whether they can forward my contact details, to run an article on inspirational women to correspond with October!
If this was just me 2 years on I would go for it, however since being diagnosed with secondaries my story does not have quite the same ‘happily ever after ending’ I very much hoped it would a couple of years ago.
My conflicting feelings are:
Against – I realise the importance of people, when diagnosed with primary cancer, hearing positive stories of hope. I don’t want to disillusion people who want to believe in a future recovery for themselves and close family members.
I also don’t know how much I should expose of myself to people, who I don’t know, who may recognise me, in this category I include friends of my son. (although I feel that he has openly shared information with others.) This year I began a new job as a teacher, with parents who don’t know of my previous BC history. Whereas most will be sympathetic to my ordeal, I don’t want people to judge me or treat me any different than anybody else, or have doubts about whether I will always be there for their child.
On the other hand I think that secondary cancer is grossly under represented in the press. Perhaps I could put this straight and make more people aware of what traumas many of us face. I look completely normal (in my opinion :o) anyway ). I smile as often as anybody else, work hard and get on with my life, yet I have an uncertain future. Nobody looking from the outside can understand what dark thoughts overwhelm us at times. I realise that BCC are attempting to increase awareness of secondary cancer, perhaps I should take this opportunity too.
I am also aware that if I do go with it, I need to represent secondaries accurately. I am at the beginning of my secondary diagnosis and still able to get on with life, as I have very little SE’s, I realise that everybody is different and I wouldn’t want to trivialise somebody elses’s more difficult experiences.
It may be hypothetical anyway as the paper may decide that they don’t want to interview somebody with a ‘secondaries’ experience. I would welcome some opinions either way,
Thanks Nicola xx