I started Chemo in November last year and stumbled upon the Breast Cancer Care forum. There was a thread where any ladies who started Chemo in November 2013 could chat about side effects, surgery, wigs or just general cancer or non-cancer related things. Through this forum, I was invited to join a Facebook group where we could discuss things privately. At times discussing things that we felt we couldn’t share with anyone else, because no one else could understand.

I can’t tell you how amazing these women are. Each on their own rather crappy journey, but each and every one of them giving and receiving support when it’s been needed.

Some had surgery before chemo, some after, some had Herceptin, some had rads, no two journey’s are the same. But we were all there, at the end of a computer, sometimes in the middle of the night, helping one another through.

Last week, we lost one of our NN’s, Rachel. She was one of a kind, only 42 with two beautiful children. She had a wicked sense of humour and told us some hilarious stories. The whole group is devastated. We all knew the statistics, and despite the fact we’d all been on the wrong side of a cancer diagnosis, some of which happened at a very young age, this wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t in the script. I’m on the road to recovery, I expect all the November Newbies to be so too. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and it sucks.

Rachel, we miss you. Fly high with laughter on your wings.

Jx