Ten years this month.....

So we have entered the month of June 2011, and thus ten years since my initial diagnosis.   I am certainly glad that the initial prognosis was wrong or else I wouldn't be here.   It was believed at the time, based on statistics, that the chances of my living three years was unlikely.   Well, I guess I just proved that statistics are based on a group, and not individuals!

Tonight, my daughter and I went to the "Relay for Life" and I did the survivor walk.  It was all her idea.  I have participated in the relay in the past but find it very difficult for a variety of reasons.  One is that the very first year the relay was in our home town, it was at my high school and I was very involved with the organizing of it from the school point of view.   Little did I know that three weeks after this first annual event I would be diagnosed with cancer., and participate as a survivor one year later.  I have never quite gotten over that.   Also, there are many people who were with me initially when I went as a survivor who are no longer here.  This event just reminds me of that fact.   I also find it very emotional walking around the track (where I used to work) with people clapping and shouting 'hurray'.   I don't like emotional events....especially when they centre around me!  It reminds me of how much I have been through and at this time in my life what is ahead of me too.

 My daughter was thrilled that I was there and for her it was a reminder not of what might have happened, but rather what hadn't happened.  I was still here to walk.   We also let balloons go, one for every year since diagnosis (I got 10!) and it was spectacular to see all balloons float up into the sky....what a visual statement of how many of us are living with cancer rather than dying from it.

   I guess in the end I am happy that my daughter cared enough to think that I should do this walk and she watched with a great big smile.  Ten years....who would ever have thought......