Six degrees of separation
Six degrees of separation, the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of "a friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.
I wanted to write this blog for my own peace of mind, raise awareness, and to let my friends know what I was getting up to, however, it seems it might be doing a little more than that. I was truly overwhelmed by everyone sharing my post, the beautiful and kind things you wrote, and the volume of people viewing our site (cue a very excited Fraggy). It has given me further strength and my heart is full of so much love, so thank you all, you rock!
Within a couple of hours of sharing the blog, I had people I have never met getting in contact with me, which was something I didn't expect, but what a wonderful surprise it was. People were sharing stories of their cancer diagnosis, treatments, and successes. It is wonderful to read these messages and connect with new people going through a similar journey.
I wanted to take the time to mention two people who reached out to me this week, funnily enough both come from the Isle of Wight, you may already know each other... Firstly, Ashton Howard, writer of Positively thirteen blog, who is currently going through her maintenance stage of treatment, after being diagnosed with ALL last year. It was so refreshing to speak to someone who is going through a similar journey as me, and by the sounds of it, the start of our journeys are almost identical. Ashton was explaining that she had felt quite isolated sitting in an age bracket (26 years old) where the support networks were not as prevalent compared to the younger teen networks. She informed me of a charity that she is a Young Person Panel member for. The charity, Trekstock, helps support young adults affected by cancer, definitely worth a look if you fall within the young adult age bracket. Thank you again for getting in touch with me Ashton, you look amazing and are an inspiration!
Secondly, Tori Coles, recently diagnosed with Grade 3 Invasive HER-2 Ductal Breast Cancer, at age 26, and writer of Tori's Pink Ribbon Journey (take a read). Again, it is so refreshing to talk with someone my age who has been thrown into the world of Cancer within a couple of weeks of each other, plus she had mentioned Nandos on the first page of her blog - a girl after my own heart!! Tori was informed on the exact same day as me (Friday 13th November, 2015 - spooky), that she would be the first patient to go through the same fertility surgery as me, but at the Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton. Thank you for getting in touch Tori, I look forward to keeping in touch. Best of luck with your first bout of Chemotherapy this week, I hope we can share a Nandos together soon!