Special Feature Edition: Pathways to Resilience: Embracing
our Vulnerability, Celebrating our Resilience
The other side of fear and the
road to resilience: The becoming of the Centre for Building Resilience in
Breast Cancer
When I was undergoing
chemotherapy, I was not thinking of how I would be re-building the life that
breast cancer had left me with. Rather, I was thinking of whether I will stay
alive to see my daughter Ella, who was only three at the time, grow up and
blossom in the many ways I was picturing her. My research, my students, and the
history of my pioneering career like a fast train running before my eyes. Too
fast for me to relive the moments. Where was this train going? The picture was
blur. I stopped looking.
You can consider that the purpose
of life is two-fold: to survive and to survive well. Now that I am three and a
half years post diagnosis, I ask myself if the two are mutually exclusive. When
survival is threatened by an incurable disease can the mind turn to bettering
the quality of the uncertain time it has left? It will need much resilience and
cognitive efficiency. How can it achieve this when it is exhausted, tortured,
and highly vulnerable?
Breast cancer is the biggest
cause of malignancy in women worldwide with increasing rates in younger women.
In the UK alone, every 10 minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer.
Spectacular advancements in medicine enable women to live longer. But, the
psychological cost of trauma and treatment related side effects continue to
plague the lives of these women with fear of recurrence constituting a major
threat to cognitive and emotional health, and rates of anxiety and depression
looming high.
October 2, 2015, felt like the
right time for me to rise to the challenge. My expertise on building resilience
in anxiety and depressive vulnerability was to be extended and applied to a
population in most need of it, women with breast cancer. Ladies who continue to
thrive in spite of their vulnerability; who continue to work, look after their
children and families and contribute to society in fruitful ways.
Today, we celebrate our
resilience by embracing our vulnerability one year on. Our funded research
continues to prosper findings that are shaping the way for future interventions
to improve the quality of life in our lovely ladies. The road is windy and
rocky at times but we are on the right path. The road to resilience has no
ending, because we are learning how to turn our vulnerability into our
strength. We will never break.
Along
this path, I met Tamsin and Vicky, the two sisters I had longed for all my
life, the deputy heads of our centre, who continue to support and flourish the
centre and our private group in unimaginable ways. I met Jenny and Anita, our
ambassadors, who bring much insight, guidance and interaction to our group. All
our members: you are heart and soul of the centre. And Jess, my PhD student
whose research is at the forefront of building resilience in women with breast
cancer. I want to tell her, like I tell Ella, that I will be there in person or
in spirit to see you rise to the star that you deserve to be.
#panningforgold
#pathways2resilience
#bcresiliencecentre
#breastcancerawareness
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