having cancer was a life-changing ordeal for me, and i have to say that i’m still grappling with it today. i am just monitoring myself to make sure the cancer doesn’t come back. one in three women end up with metastatic cancer so that’s always a worry that we carry around with us for the rest of our lives.
what was the scariest part about your diagnosis?
waiting for the biopsy results was actually the worst part. i felt like i was living underneath this terrible, cold and clammy fear and i could think of nothing else. it took three months, but when i finally got the diagnosis, it was a relief.
what did you learn from the cancer experience?
i realized just how deeply cancer affected my family and how traumatizing it was for my partner who supported me every step of the way. throughout treatment, i had been mostly thinking about myself, but this experience was really hard on my partner too. i’m very grateful for him because i know lots of women whose marriages have split up. i think that if you have a crack in your marriage, it can cause more cracks, but if you have a solid relationship, a cancer experience can bring you closer together.
sue robins was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 48.
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you write in your books about the importance of mental health support for cancer patients.
most people don’t get any mental health therapy when they go through cancer treatment, and i personally think that everybody needs emotional and mental support. cancer opens up all of what you haven’t addressed or reconciled with in your life. i still see the same therapist today, and it’s been five years post-treatment. she is helping me grapple with the trauma and medical post-traumatic stress, as well as my own family stuff — but i don’t feel i’ll ever be fully healed from the cancer experience.