Page 408 - She's One Crazy Lady!

every aspect of our life and death. The way we all deal with cancer varies considerably. We can choose to deny that it is happening, we can live in fear of it, adopt a fatalistic attitude, gather information and process it in order to make decisions or accept it and ‘get on with life.’ Whatever coping strategy is adopted, there will, undoubtedly be difficulties, communication barriers and misunderstandings. Today, being told that one in two of us will have some level of cancer sometime in our life, the need to talk has never
been more important.
I have done a lot of ‘talking’ in my book. My hope being that it will
give people the confidence and courage to speak out and talk with their loved ones about cancer, to talk ‘with’ the health professionals, and for the health professionals to continue to talk with their patients – not just about the illness. To the patient, the team of medical professionals caring for him/her are that patient’s lifeline – literally – and the patient should always be made to feel comfortable in offloading with their medical team, to ask the burning questions and to leave the consultation room feeling listened to, understanding more about the realities and options about their illness, and less stressed.
I’m being philosophical...
So what now? How am I going to spend my time? A question many have asked.
A rest first. Well, I am officially retired! Will I ever ‘retire’? I doubt it.
I love projects – I have to have a project – I have no desire to sit about. (I’ve done enough of that these past six months!). My first goal will be to see the final Crazy Hats projects completed at KGH, NGH and LRI – especially the one at KGH, to whom we gave the bulk of the excess funds when we closed – £390,000 donated to ‘Spruce Up’ the waiting area in the Breast Clinic – a project we first put to them in 2018. Plans are well underway. There have been many hurdles to jump over but we are really looking forward to cutting the ribbon for the new extension (waiting lounge) and a beautiful, landscaped
“My first goal will be to see the final Crazy Hats projects completed at KGH, NGH and LRI.
”
408