notes on survivorship

Survival is what everyone practises, all of us, every single day of our lives. We hang on in there, breathing the air. We drink the water and chew the cud. We share these basics. Then come the particulars, of which cancer is only one. It is only another exercise in survivorship. That's all it is.

This blog, when I get the chance to post to it, will encourage others to share stories about survivorship, maybe not exclusively survivorship to do with cancer. Just because I live with cancer doesn't mean it has taken over my life and crowded out all the other survivorship issues I - like everyone else - must deal with on a daily basis. It did shout loudest when it first came up; that was only to be expected. Cancer screams urgency, demands complete and focused attention. But not all the time, not every day. Like anything else, like life itself, you get used to it; and it's surprising how many other demands - the call of a sunny morning, a parents' evening at school, a load of scripts to read, a song to prepare, can drown that shrill sharp voice. At first, you think you have no time at all, but that's not necessarily the case. And, besides, we all of us, all of us, face life one day, one hour, one minute at a time. When my oncologist told me I had years, not months, I felt suddenly equal to the challenge. The voice lost some its shrillness. It was just another journey.

Whatever becomes of this blog, I want to dedicate it now to the oncology/surgical teams at The Royal Cornwall Hospital, Treliske. It is because of them that I survived another and another and another and another day....