Beautiful People

I have met some beautiful people whilst meandering through life. I include some of my closest and longest friends, and also random people who enter life’s journey for short periods of time. I talk about the sort of people who cross your path perhaps just once, but enhance your life when they’re part of it, no matter how little time you spend in their company. They would make amazing friends, but that isn’t part of their destiny.

Yesterday, I found myself in the care of a lovely group of such ladies at the Royal Stoke Hospital. On the 20th September 2021 I was given the news that the lump in my right breast was in fact Cancerous. It is a scary emotional road trip that I have never planned for. And here I am, life coach, mentor and all I knew went out of the window because who coaches the coach?

In just over 4 weeks I have learned so much about what a diagnosis like this means. It’s brought home to me what the power good friends and small acts of kindness can have; and whilst I’ve always understood this I have never truly experienced it.

I’m not here to instill you with the tedious details of every appointment, nor any of the gory details of any procedures I’ve had to endure, but yesterday I needed my (3rd) biopsy. My first two had been difficult, for various reasons.

Every contact I’ve had with the Breast Care team at Royal Stoke has been beautiful. The radiologists and nurses I met yesterday are caring and nurturing, and I spent 3 1/2 hours in their care. The last unscheduled 90 minutes involved three of them taking turns to apply pressure to my very small but very stubbornly bleeding wound. Its rare, I understand for it to take this long, but it is slightly reassuring that I don’t hold the record. During that time, we laughed despite the weight of the situation I am currently in. We shared stories of pets and holidays and we talked about positivity and its significance as I take this path. Not once was I given the feeling that I was taking up too much time, nor did they mention they’d not managed a coffee break or that there were other patients waiting for their turn.

Wonderful people like these beautiful ladies are everywhere in life if you seek them out and we are often too busy to notice. My nurses told me they shared the “treat people as you wish to be treated” philosophy – a simple life rule that is often overlooked in this hectic world. Yet all we need to do is to stop and watch to find them.