Sorry that I have been so quiet. It has been a rather busy few weeks. The first reason I haven’t written is due to the fact that I went on the holiday of a lifetime with the best people. I decided a few months ago that life is too short (for obvious reasons) and arranged to take my family and best girls (disclaimer this was a hard decision as I wish I could have taken them all) on a holiday of a lifetime. Everyone that knows me, knows that, every spare moment I get, I spend in the Kruger National Park. This is what I fondly refer to as my happy place. It is where I go to recharge my batteries at least a few times a year. Located within the Greater Kruger National Park is of course the Sabi Sands. After having experienced some photographic safaris a few years ago, this luxury has been out of reach for a while. Whilst Kruger remains my first love, game viewing in the Sabi Sands is quite unique in that you really get to experience the wildlife up close and personal particularly leopards. It is a much more chilled way to conduct game viewing as you just sit on the vehicle and the amazing tracker and ranger use their eagle eyes to spot game for you. And spot they did!!!!!

Being a family that has watched Safari Live / WildEarth for many years, reignited during lockdown I must say, I decided that we need to go to Djuma Private Nature Reserve where WildEarth is filmed. In addition they have an amazing lodge which is quite reasonable considering the sands and we could book out the entire lodge just for us. The lodge is called Vuyatela and it was just amazing. Having the whole place to ourselves was super special. We lounged by the pool, had afternoon naps and saw THE most amazing sightings. To say we were spoilt was an understatement.

On our first drive, we came across none other than Lauren Arthur from WildEarth and her cam-ops David (aka Dawie). We all gave her a resounding greeting and she was very polite and said hi to us all. We had heard that she was leaving WildEarth and I proceeded to ask if this was true which she confirmed. To this I replied with an expletive because we were all sad that it was true. She then informed us that she was live! So I swore on live TV to about 10 000 odd peeps around the world! Whilst it was funny (ok it was hilarious) I did feel terrible and I messaged her later that night and apologised. I invited her and Dawie for a drink to make it up and they accepted. We had the most lovely evening chatting to these two charming peeps. Lauren really is an asset to WildEarth and what you see on TV is what you see in real life. I really do hope that they realise her potential and get her back. She told us about the new hyena den and we got to see the famous matriarch Ribbon (but no babbies). Thank you Lauren for being fabulous!!!

Below is just one of the many pics I took but it is one of my favourites. We saw numerous lions, lions on a kill, leopard on a kill, leopards on ant heaps, leopards stealing other leopards food, elephants, buffalos on our doorstep and numerous antelope and bird species. We were so spoilt. It was hard to come home..

But I digress…

Upon returning from THE most amazing holiday, it was onto the next stage of treatment. Radiation. So radiation is conducted after surgery that I had to ensure that no cancer cells remain i.e. zap them! Radiation acts by killing slowing cancer cells by damaging their DNA. Whilst all my cancer was removed, this is just insurance to help prevent re-occurrence. I had what is referred to as external beam radiation. I underwent mapping scans prior to the holiday where they position you and tattoo you with little dots (I added a few more freckles) so that you can be in the same position for each session. Its quite cool, they use lasers to position you for each session. The actual radiation has been such a breeze. The biggest inconvenience has been driving to Donald Gordon (40km round trip) everyday. I am wondering how many speeding fines I got….

My skin has handled it quite well. It is a bit red and itchy but otherwise it has been fine. I have another two weeks where the radiation will still be active in my cells where after I will start to heal.

The fabulous part about doing my radiation at Donald Gordon is that they use the Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) technique to administer the radiation. This is in order to protect your heart and lungs as much as possible during the radiation. So what this means is when they start the radiation you have to breathe in deeply and hold your breath while the radiation is being administered. This apparently cuts the amount of radiation your heart gets by half. To help with this you get to watch a screen with a blue and yellow line and you have to breathe in and keep the yellow line in the blue line where it turns green. I am hoping all the deep breathing will help with my running!

So I had to do this everyday for 4 weeks. Luckily in the middle there they had to service the machine and I got to spend a weekend playing shuttle bunny to my Mindful Runner buddies in the Berg. The universe was aligning well…

So today I put my flower on the wall. When you finish radiation you get to add a flower to the beautiful tree that they have painted on the wall. Pretty cool. I politely told the fabulous ladies (after feeding them chocolate) that I hoped I wouldn’t be seeing them again… They were amazing though. Tumi and Zandi were my favourites as they were always so happy to hear about my weekends and adventures and always remembered what I had been up to. It meant a lot.

So what is next…. next I start my oral chemo Xeloda for 6 months. I get to see my fabulous oncology team, Ronwyn and Karabo, every three weeks and hopefully I get through it unscathed. I am excited to tell you that I have been entered into a clinical trial. Due to the fact that I did not have a PCR (pathological Complete Response) i.e. my tumour did not disappear with the chemo treatment (don’t worry it has been removed completely) I am a perfect candidate for a clinical trial for triple negative breast cancer. I am the first person registered in the trial and it is essentially a cancer vaccine. I am so excited for this and cannot wait to get it after my Xeloda treatment. Everyone must please hold fingers and toes crossed that I get the actual vaccine and not the placebo.

I leave you with the good news that I have started running again. A long way to go but I am loving the comeback and can’t wait to hit my trails again soon.

It has been almost 7 weeks since I had my operation. I enjoyed being a princess for about 2 weeks and my mom and sister were amazing. They humoured my OCD bathing regime and it was fabulous. I quickly worked out a routine for myself and became self sufficient.

I have to pinch myself when I look at my new boobs! They are so amazing and so comfy! I certainly don’t miss the old ones!!!! I also have had no pain whatsoever. It was really just the focus on not moving my arms too much and sleeping on my back that kept me on my toes. I feel very lucky in this regard considering I lost 2kg (easiest weight I ever lost) in theatre.

I have been visiting Sheree, my plastic surgeon basically bi-weekly for dressing changes. Cancer boob is being a pain and I may need to get a stitch put in to close a little spot that isn’t in the mood for healing. Usually visiting a dr this often is a mission but visiting Sheree is such a pleasure and I just love hearing about the fascinating surgeries that she is doing saving little kids. I am going to miss our visits when cancer boob is healed.

After my surgery, Sarah my surgeon, said that she had found some tumour still left when she removed the tissue in the area. The tumour was removed completely and the margins were clear but this has been worrying me terribly because it means the chemo which worked so well at the start was not quite as effective as we thought. It means that I didn’t achieve a Pathological Complete Response (PCR). This freaks me out a little, I won’t lie. I have been so focused on the chemo and surgery and now suddenly I am faced with the next steps. Its a bit like I felt at the beginning when I was first faced with the news.

It’s a bit scary to think that this may come back and that keeps yelling at me from the back of my mind. I am actually cancer free now and I should be celebrating that!!

Yesterday I met with Ronwyn and Karabo, my oncology team. I got to show them my new boobs which they loved!!! Well done Sheree LOL. I wanted to see Ronwyn to talk about the chemo tablet that had been mentioned by my radiologist. I wasn’t too keen on more chemo side effects so I wanted to understand this fully so I could prepare myself (see brain comment above). Usually facts calm my brain down but I was quite tense afterwards with a whirlwind of emotions swirling in my head (not your fault Ronwyn & Karabo). My brain works in black and white! I don’t like grey areas!!

I went to visit my friend Haley afterwards. Haley has been in hospital for 7 weeks for cancer treatment herself. I just love our visits and seeing my friend and what she is going through ended my little pity party. As my friend Sofi would say “Suck it up Buttercup”. I do enjoy visiting Haley and its rather hilarious because the staff think we are sisters so I get to stay much longer than normal. Pity I didn’t realise this earlier!

Some very exciting news however is that I may be entered into a new clinical trail. I will report back on that in my next blog.

So the way forward… I start radiation for 4 weeks on the 18th of October, given my wound is healed, and then I have to take oral chemo for 6 months. The upside of this is that I get to see Karabo and Ronwyn every three weeks which is pretty cool. My dancing girls!!

The one side effect that is worrying me is Palmar-Plantar Erythrodysesthesia or hand-foot syndrome because this could affect my running. I cannot wait to get back to running and back to the trails with my running buddies. I have missed it so much and have such FOMO watching everyone running awesome trails. This syndrome happens when tiny amounts of chemo leak out of your veins and it affects your hands and feet. Your hands and feet shouldn’t get warm or confined on the meds so I will be keeping ice buckets at hand to cool down my feet if it means I can do some running again.

On a more positive note, I am heading to the bush in two weeks for a very welcome spoil and I can’t wait to enjoy it with the family and my special friends. The leopards of the Sabi Sands better come out and do the hoola for me with honey badgers as the side show.

I have been a little quiet as I didn’t want to bore you with my frustration in waiting for the genetic test results. Then I got them and everything moved into hyper drive again.

My last chemo was revolting. After such a happy day on the day of chemo the following days were the worst I have felt. Boy was I glad that was the last one!! It certainly accumulated in my body. Yuck. I am more than convinced that coming in fit certainly helped me through it. I am VERY glad that is over.

So the minute chemo was over my surgeon Dr Sarah Nietz (enter my amazing surgeon💞) didn’t let me rest for a minute. Ronwyn my oncologist had messaged her at my last chemo so the wheels started turning so quickly again. I was feeling so uneasy without the genetic results which were taking forever. We booked the lumpectomy and reduction regardless (Sarah is telepathic and knew it would be negative 😂) and thank goodness the test came back that next week as negative. I was rather relieved, not only from the operation perspective but also from my family’s perspective. No one needed to be tested. Phew n

I also had the pleasure of meeting my new plastic surgeon who works with Sarah, Dr Sheree Koonin (enter other awesome surgeon💞). I certainly hit the jackpot in terms of medical teams. I can’t say it enough. Sheree took the dreaded before photo which was beyond gross and I asked her to go as small as possible. She promised she would do her best.

So Friday the 13th arrived. Lucky for some, lucky for me. Had the best anaethetist Daryl who I had told about my worst fear for surgery – the fact that my veins are shot from chemo. He tried once gave it up as a bad joke and I got the best gas ever!!! My hero😂 I woke with a drip which held the whole time so he did really well. Sheree also drew pretty pictures on me with her tape measure and spirit level. She says her dad is very proud she uses boy tools cause he only has daughters!😂😂

Surgery took almost 5 hours cause they were low on some manpower but all went really well. They gave me some goooood drugs and I slept well on Friday night! I saw both my awesome surgeons in my drug haze and got the just that all went well. I was so out of it I didn’t even notice my flat chest 😂😂

The next morning Sarah came to see me and told me while I was sober that all went well. We do have to wait for the pathology to make sure it’s all out but I have every confidence that Sarah did.

Then Sheree came to see me and for the first time I actually looked at my new boobs! Wow! It’s going to be an adjustment to put it mildly. They removed a kg out of each breast!!! That is insane! Sheree said she kept taking more cause I told her I want small. I am so excited!!!! Sarah and Sheree even gave me a gift for post surgery!!!

I also saw my fabulous physio Candice who happens to love the bush and knows my friend Kelly! Small world it is! She was just as fabulous and showed me how to move without arms. Thank goodness I have abdominal muscles!!!!

The underlying message of this blog, whilst I wanted to update you all, was to celebrate my medical team. I firmly believe that they are the reason this journey has been so seamless. Girl power to the max! Nobody has forgotten about me and have helped me every step of the way! They have just been amazing. I thought this is normal but it certainly isn’t. When in hospital my lovely neighbour was in agony and she just didn’t get any love or sympathy from her team. Her physio was like the gestapo and her doctor was downright mean to her. I was horrified and felt so bad for her. It was such an absolute pleasure seeing my team. They came early and all instructions were so clear. I also have so much post op information to instruct me. Thank you Sheree and Sarah for being so awesome! And thanks Candice for making me wear my slippers😂😂 ( I will tell you why when j see you)

So it’s 3 weeks of recovery. Pain isn’t bad but I feel rather useless. Instructions are that I am to act like a princess for the next three weeks! My mom and sister are here at my side doing everything. Not sure what I would have done without them. It sucks not being able to do stuff (enter control freak) but I know it will be over soon. Worst is I can’t shower for three weeks either😳😳😳 I very quickly installed a hand shower so I can wash nether regions until a proper shower (enter OCD freak😂😂). Works perfectly.

I may bore you again if I get beyond bored at home. 😂😂 but hoping to start with some walking in about a week to get some fresh air so I don’t go off my trolley!! 😂😂

Thanks for all the fabulous messages of support. Each and every one is appreciated 💞💞💞 I won’t scare with the new boobs but trust me they are awesome. I think my back is confused😂😂😂

I am an impatient person and if anyone should understand how long and tedious it is to extract DNA it should be me. This last week I finally got approval from my medical aid to go for genetic testing. This is a rather pricy exercise so I am glad they agreed to pay. Once again I am going to educate you on what this means in my cancer journey.

Everyone talks about cancer being hereditary and it is easy to determine this when the cancer has occurred before in your family. This is not the case with my family so we needed more information. Understanding your genetic make up is critical to determining the surgery options in my case. Also it may help my family members with their decision making should it be hereditary.

We all have two genes in our DNA (there are others but these two are the important ones) known as BRCA 1 and BRCA 2. BRCA standing for BReast CAncer. Incorrectly, many people think that if you have these genes you immediately are at risk for breast cancer. This is not the case. These genes are present in all of us. They are know as Tumour Suppressing Genes which means they actually stop you from getting breast cancer when they are working correctly. If however they have a mutation of some sorts, this means that the tumour suppressing job that they perform is faulty and voila a tumour can develop. Below is an illustration showing the two chromosomes which hold the two genes.

So when I got diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) I was advised to go for genetic counselling to determine if my cancer is of a hereditary nature. If I am BRCA positive i.e. I have a mutation present, it has implications on the surgery that I need to have. The best way forward if I am positive is to remove all the tissue that is affected by this gene mutation. This would be the breast tissue and ovaries. If I am BRCA negative I don’t need to remove all the tissue and I can have a much less invasive procedure.

Enter the plastic surgeon. My surgeon referred me to an excellent plastic surgeon at the Donald Gordon Hospital. A rather handsome one at that and I had to show this man my boobs! Anyway turns out he was very professional. He had to take photos of my boobs and his camera wouldn’t work so I told him my boobs had broken his camera! We had a good laugh.

He was really great and very optimistic about my options. So the two options are as follows. If I am BRCA positive then I have to have a bilateral mastectomy with a reconstruction. The reconstruction is a big operation and is called a DIEP flap reconstruction. In simple terms, they essentially remove the breasts and construct new ones with your tummy fat so you get a tummy tuck at the same time. The nice part is that they do not touch your abdominal muscles. So a win win situation but it is a bit of a massacre on your body so not the ideal option.

If I am BRCA negative, the other and much less invasive option is a lumpectomy i.e. they remove the “lump” and do a bilateral breast reduction. They make use of the marker already placed in my breast to remove the correct tissue. I was wondering about this and asked because the lump will essentially be gone when I do my surgery. I will then have some radiation therapy to nuke anything left over. My surgeon assures me and has shared recent studies to indicate that a lumpectomy seems to be more effective than a mastectomy these days (if BRCA negative).

Either way I get new smaller boobs! Whoop whoop!!

So why is my patience being tested? Well I have to wait 5 weeks for the DNA results to come out which is very frustrating but I totally get that extracting from the human genome is not a small task. I mean we spent three days just trying to extract the DNA from a leaf way back in honours at Kirstenbosch. I did manage to do it by the way. And then my lecturer made me walk up Table Mountain and nearly killed me. But that is a story for another day.

So while I wait I have two more chemos to go. I am dreading each one more now even though it really isn’t that bad. In the last week I have been walking and gyming and it has felt almost normal (apart from a certain virus). So I really can’t complain. I think I just want to get to the surgery now. I joined a cancer group on facebook and it has been very sobering to see other people’s journey’s and the hardships this disease causes. I have felt a lot of guilt at having a relatively easy, ok very easy journey compared to others. I wish I could spread my healing vibes around. I also keep thinking its too good to be true sometimes but I quickly send this thought away and stay positive cause its the only way I know how.

Till next time – keep safe

So now I am in the thick of my chemotherapy treatment. How is it going? It is gross but I think I am getting off lucky. Many people have asked me about how chemotherapy works and why you get all these yuck side effects. Being of a scientific inclination I have also needed to understand the science behind the drugs.

The main function of chemotherapy is to attack fast dividing cells i.e. zoning in on cancer cells which are fast dividing cells which have lost their command essentially. The problem comes in that there are other fast dividing cells in your body and these also get affected by the chemo hence the side effects that you get.

Due to my type of cancer which I mentioned in my previous blog I am having a rather hectic chemo regime made up of three different drugs namely Docetaxel, Doxorubicin and Cyclophosphamide. I was quite interested to read that Doxotaxel is made from plant alkaloids and affects the microtubules in a cell. These are critical for a cell to divide so it makes sense to attack these. For my varsity buddies – revise mitosis LOL

Doxorubicin is the so-called red devil chemo and is the strong one apparently. Interestingly it is derived from soil fungus (Streptomyces), perhaps I should have paid more attention to my mycology prof at varsity…. Cyclophosphamide is not nearly as interesting LOL

So long story short these three cause more or less the same side effects and there is a long list but if you think about it, which cells in your body are replaced regularly, your mouth, hair follicles, your tummy, your gut etc so this is where the side effects zone in. Luckily my side effects have really been quite manageable. In fact I wait each time for it to get worse and am pleasantly surprised. I did lose my hair and am now beautifully bald LOL. I hardly have nausea and I feel maybe a bit tired. The worst has been my mouth. I get some sores in my throat and my taste buds have taken a sabbatical. You would think that if food doesn’t taste good that I wouldn’t want to eat it and maybe lose some weight! But noooo my brain knows what it tastes like so we eat it anyway. Sigh…

But enough about the yucky stuff. At my second chemo my oncologist examined me to see how the tumour is responding. I had felt a slight difference but to be honest I was ignoring it cause I didn’t need a reminder. So when she examined me and couldn’t really find the thing I was so excited as was she! I had responded so well to the yuck mentioned above. It was a good day and it made the chemo session all the more easier to handle.

Chemo no. 3 would have been a mission, I wasn’t in the mood. The three days after chemo are crap (selfishly so cause I know it should be worse) and I wasn’t in the mood for it. But I had decided on a whim to join my running buddies in Sabie to cheer them on at the Mac Mac Ultra and would be leaving the day after chemo. My awesome Ingy offered to drive me as she was going alone and to top it off my fabulous running buddy Helen decided that she was going to come too to second team Mindful Runner. I decided to surprise the runners and not tell anyone. This anticipation and fun really helped take my mind off the chemo. I was so looking forward to seeing their faces and get to cheer them across the finish line.

So off we went to Sabie and the weekend did not disappoint. The vibe at a race is infectious (no not in a CoVID way). It was the energy I needed and it certainly took my mind off the death taste in my mouth and the general yuck feel. I got to chill in my camp chair in the beautiful fresh air and scream like a women possessed when my friends came running in. Luckily my lungs still work well. It was such fun. I did have Dr Helen looking after me the whole time as well as everyone else being so awesome. I was put down for a nap at various times. Thank you my precious friend.

PS: I was very strict with my mask and social distancing.

It was an epic weekend and I am so proud of team Mindful Runner for their awesome achievements. I can’t wait to get back into the mountains.

And to end this blog with a bang, I went for my sonar yesterday to check the size of my tumour and the radiologist was unable to pick it up. So it has shrunk completely and we are now on the home stretch. I still have to go for the last three chemo treatments (yes I tried to get out of them) but is ok I just need to find something to motivate me through each session. hint hint nudge nudge

I am back on my blog but this time I am fighting a different battle. I went from getting so excited about being able to run with more ease after my asthma diagnosis and feeling so healthy to “you have breast cancer”. Yes you read that correctly. It was rather a shock I must say.

It was the 21st of March and we had just had the most amazing day mosaicing and drinking fabulous gin n tonics. It was such a lovely day with friends. I went to sleep that night with a happy heart. This was however rudely shattered when I fell asleep on my tummy and felt some pain in my breast. I rolled over and found a lump. My brain went into overdrive and I tried to convince myself that I was imagining it. It was however unmistakably a lump. The next day was a holiday so I couldn’t get it seen to or even make an appointment so I had a rather stressful day mulling and overthinking it. I managed to get an emergency appointment at the Breast Wellness Centre at Sunninghill on the Tuesday. They were really fantastic to squeeze me in and I was so grateful. The ladies in the waiting room weren’t too pleased as they took a while doing my biopsies. These were surprisingly not sore at all and quite fascinating to watch. The dr didn’t really like what she saw so I kind of knew there was something ominous.

They called me on the Thursday morning of the same week and it was the news I didn’t really want to hear. From that phone call it was like a garbled mess. There was so much to be done and everything happened at lightning speed. Appointments were made for me and I did nothing but rocked up! I saw the surgeon on the Thursday afternoon. This was the first reality check and it came down like a ton of bricks. My friend Sarah came with me thank goodness as I don’t think I could have done it alone. All the family were away and I was on my ace for this. My surgeon told me that I have triple negative breast cancer which means that this type of cancer doesn’t respond to hormonal treatment as it has no receptors for them. It thus has to be treated with chemotherapy followed by surgery. Chemotherapy of course means that I would lose my hair. This was the straw that broke the camels back and just cried with Sarah. Ugly cried! But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. My surgeon also commented that I have very big boobs. My response was “you think?” We had a good laugh!! So she gave me the options of the surgeries to think about and she soon realised that this would be the easiest part for me. Anyone who knows me knows that I have rather uncomfortable boobs and they are a pain. This is not quite the way I planned to get rid of them but hey I won’t complain. I also had to go into hospital to have my sentinel lymph node removed. This is the lymph node that first indicates the spread of the cancer. This was booked for Tuesday the next week.

I then saw my oncologist on the Friday afternoon and she gave me the treatment plan that is being developed for me. I really felt that I was in good hands with these two ladies looking after me. My oncologist tried to be more diplomatic about my boob size and we had a good laugh when I told her what my surgeon said. My oncologist also has an assistant who I can contact at any time on Whatsapp which is really fantastic!

Did I say whirlwind? Flip it happened so quickly. I had to go for an MRI and full body CT on the Monday which was uneventful with the staff at Parklane Clinic being awesome! I then had to go and receive an injection to enable my surgeon to find the sentinel lymph node in my armpit. This is a nuclear injection and I had no information about it. I thought it would be injected into my arm however I got the fabulous news that this would be injected directly into my boob so that it would flow to the node. This made sense but didn’t ease my nerves! I asked the technician if it was painful and the idiot responded by saying that he didn’t know as he had never had it. My dislike for this person escalated and he nearly got a slap! I then asked how the other patients reacted and he said some don’t and some say it feels like an insect bite. Well I can confirm that it didn’t feel like an insect bite, it left like someone was injecting fire into me! The gent got a lesson in swearwords and was feeling distinctly sheepish. I didn’t feel the second injection, I am not sure why but it was perhaps the fact that I was hyperventilating with adrenalin coursing through my veins. Luckily that was all the pain I experienced with this exercise.

I then checked into the Parklane Clinic on the Tuesday for my node removal. I had to stay overnight as I had a drain but it all went very well. The nursing staff at Parklane were really fantastic. I must say it was the best nursing care I have had in a hospital in a long time. I did give them a bit of a heart attack as my pulse rate was too low for their liking and it doesn’t appear that they get many fit people! The alarm kept going off when they checked my blood pressure and pulse! LOL

When I saw the oncologist before my first chemo session, she indicated that all my scans and lymph node tests were all negative so no spread. This was fantastic news and my prognosis is very good. I had my first chemo session on the 6th of April. Drip upon drip of stuff for 4 hours. I particularly liked the antihistamine which made me pass out! Pity I didn’t get that at the beginning! I was quite unsure of how the chemo would go but I came prepared with lots of snacks and drinks, my pillow and a new fluffy blankie. I watched series on my phone and was quite content really. I got an impressive repertoire of drugs for after the chemo and was prepared for anything. You just have the images of people hugging the toilet bowl after chemo. Luckily I have had minimal symptoms. I got a sore throat and a bad headache and my tummy was rather grumpy the second week (whilst in Kruger). I am really hoping to maintain this through the chemo but only the next session will tell.

I have just about lost all my hair and I am surprisingly ok with it now. Just one meltdown was required! I decided that I need to donate my hair for someone who needs a wig. My beautiful friend Haley recommended a lovely little place in Linden called A Few Grey Hairs. They arranged for my hair to be harvested and gave me a spiffy new hairdo. The best was that I arranged a hair cutting party and all my closest friends actually participated in cutting off my hair. It was such fun. My beautiful friend Helen also shaved her hair off for me. My sister had her hair harvested for wigs too. Did you know you can donate your hair without shaving your whole head? The other beautiful ladies are all getting pink hair strips put into their hair for me. My friends have just been amazing. To say I am lucky is an understatement.

Please join me on this journey back to health! There will be a pink comeback run at the end of this all.