FINDING PEACE
Looking to heal myself physically, I healed spiritually
I walked out of my front door and pulled it closed. Immediately, I felt like a rubber band had snapped in my right arm. “Ow!” I yelled in agony and collapsed on my doorstep.
It was 7.30am on a Saturday in September 2010, and I’d been struggling with pain in my shoulder.
I worked in the nance industry and had a big project on the go so had been too busy to properly investigate it.
My physio said it was torn ligaments, but this pain felt like something else.
My neighbour heard my cries and ran out of her house.
“I’m calling you an ambulance,” she said.
At the hospital, I was sent for an X-ray which revealed I’d shattered my humerus – the bone that goes from the shoulder blade to the elbow – in three places.
“There’s something suspicious going on,” the doctor said.
By the Monday I’d been diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare bone cancer.
Over the following year, I endured 47 gruelling days of chemo and six weeks of radiation therapy. I had my humerus removed and a titanium prosthesis inserted.
Once I was given the all clear,
I expected to gradually get better, but I remained very unwell for a long time. I struggled with chronic fatigue and couldn’t return to work.
With what little energy I had left, I looked after my daughter Rosalie, who was seven when I was diagnosed.
I started researching places that o ered postcancer support and came across a program called Healing Your Life run by Quest for Life.
It was a ve-day residential program in Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands, NSW.
I signed up, expecting to learn healthy lifestyle hacks.
Instead, I embarked on a journey into my mind.
During group therapy sessions, I learnt that we all live our lives habitually. We can get stuck in a rut. I was taught to be more conscious of how I was living, and how I was talking to myself.
I was encouraged to talk about my trauma, which I’d still felt every day since.
“I had cancer ve years ago,” I said. “e recovery has been brutal.”
I felt lighter, like a burden had been lifted. It was comforting to have someone listen to my traumatic journey. After the course, I had a newfound con dence.
But before I could find work, my arm got dislocated. The radiation therapy had made my shoulder too weak to hold my prosthesis.
I wound up wearing a sling for a year.
Determined to pick myself up again, I went back to Quest for Life.
I’ve now been a few times and during each session I’ve learnt something new about myself. It’s motivated me to complete a Masters in management, several postgraduates in HR, and I’ve studied coaching. I also joined a board for a cancer support group and became the chair for two years.
“You’re my biggest inspiration,” Rosalie, 21, said.
I initially went to Quest for Life with the goal of entering the workforce again.
Instead, I discovered so much about myself and how I could help others.
Recently, I launched my own coaching business.
ese days, whatever life throws at me, I have the tools to cope with it. I’m strong mentally now, and that means more than anything. Visit questforlife.org.au
I’m strong mentally now
How to win
Fit the eight words below in the two
grids to form eight different four-letter
words, reading downwards. The word at the bottom shaded in yellow is the winning word. Write this word on the coupon.