00:00We were known as the two Cairns here in the Macmillan unit.
00:06My cancer journey started in 2014 then it came back again in 2021.
00:18In 2021 I discovered a lump in my breast. I had to start my chemotherapy a couple of weeks after
00:24the diagnosis. I arrived up and had to get my PICC line in and was going to start treatment.
00:29So it was really quite scary and quite daunting. So I was getting ready to get set up to start
00:36my treatment and this lady came along. Karen was already there and I knew it was her first
00:42treatment because she had hair and I had hair. And I sat down opposite her and just said is
00:48this your first treatment? And she said yes and I said it's mine Tony. And then I said
00:53what's your name? And she said I'm Karen. And I said I'm Karen as well. And from that
01:00moment on we just started talking about our fears, about how difficult it had been. We
01:07swapped numbers at the end of the treatment and we walked the whole journey together.
01:13Karen and I then used to ask the ward could we be treated together? We were able to keep
01:20each other going. I'm so pleased that I didn't have to go through it on my own. We had an
01:23invaluable friendship and it has now grown on into other things and we are navigating our
01:30lives together. I would encourage anybody to just say to be vulnerable. I suppose it takes
01:36you to be vulnerable but you get so much from that when you open up.
01:40To have someone who knows exactly what it's like for those little things. And even the
01:46little things outside of the treatment in the day to day. We understand where that's coming from.
01:53I didn't just get a friend and a companion to walk through chemo with me. I have Karen here to walk
02:02walk through all those other things that come after that.
Comments