Nurse has Courage to face

Alice Robertson has always relied on her “bright smile” to shine like a beam of light through the sometimes gloomy twists and turns of life.

Even through the darkest of times during her battles with cancer, she faced all challenges with her head held high.

Her journey with the disease first started in 2017, when a small lump appeared on her neck.

She had just landed her dream job as an advanced nurse practitioner and was going through her exams in university, so put all of the symptoms down to stress.

But after an appointment with her GP and several blood tests, Mrs Robertson, from Elgin, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, aged 53.

“The whole thing is a bit of a blur,” she said. “The consultant took me into the clinic room and introduced me to various other doctors and a Macmillan cancer nurse – it was at that point I realised the results weren’t good.

“She was very nice and was just trying to give me a lot of leaflets and discuss the Anchor unit and available support, but all I could think about was how on earth was I going to explain this to my husband, children and my work.

“Telling my daughter, son and daughter-in-law was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I felt like I’d let them down – I was causing them stress and upset, when I shouldn’t be doing that.

“I’m the mother, I’m the nurse, I’m the organiser, I’m the one who keeps control and takes care of people. I was going to be brave and just had to remain positive.”

After 10 sessions of chemotherapy and a year of maintenance treatment, Mrs Robertson was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel when her “world turned upside down” once again.

Weeks before she was given the all clear, her husband Neil was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour. He died eight weeks later in May 2019.

“There was a lot of disbelief when my husband was diagnosed,” the grandmother-of-two said. “I was thinking: ‘Really? But he’s had no symptoms, no indication of anything and now you’re telling me he is terminal?’

“It just happened overnight and I kept thinking this was wrong, that they had the wrong patient, the wrong scan notes, that I’m not living this moment.

“From day one when he collapsed before my eyes I knew it was not good news. I knew we were going to be lucky if we got three months with him.

“I wouldn’t leave his side, I didn’t want to do anything else and I wasn’t really sleeping just because I was so worried about him.

“I knew he was ill, I knew that time was precious and I knew there was no better. I kept thinking: ‘Is it going to be tonight, is it going to be today?’”

While Mrs Robertson has had to persevere over the last few years, she has never let any of them cast a shadow on her positive outlook on life.

The 58-year-old, from Elgin, is now looking forward to dressing up in a fancy outfit and brightening up the Beach Ballroom as one of this year’s Courage on the Catwalk models.

She will take to the stage of the Friends of Anchor fashion show at the weekend to show her “enormous” gratitude to the team, who was by her side in the most difficult of times.

And as she steps out on the catwalk and looks into the audience, she hopes her infinite positivity will be passed on to others, who need that little bit of joy on their journey.

She added: “There might not be a tomorrow, so live for the day – enjoy life, smile and be happy.

“Life is a journey and it has lots of different paths. But any path we chose, we need to take it as our destiny, and I’m really just looking forward to the next chapter of my life – whatever and wherever.”

Courage on the Catwalk will take place at the Beach Ballroom this Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are on sale at the Friends of Anchor website.