The Journey
Post Cancer Diagnosis & Chemo Mentoring Programme
Last year I was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer, now I'm supporting other women with a cancer diagnosis
There is so much I wish I'd known when I was first diagnosed that I've since learnt along the way- both practical tips around how to deal with chemo, and mindset hacks for dealing with the shock of it all.
Even if you have a very supportive family and friend network, if they haven't been through it, it can be hard- you don't want to worry them. Sometimes sharing with someone outside your close circle is easier.
Read my full cancer journey below- I was diagnosed last year age 39, and I have been through surgery / chemo and I am now 9 months post active treatment finishing, I've had 3 scans giving the all clear so far- my next scan is due late October.
I took a holistic integrative approach to healing bringing in reiki, mindset work, positive psychology, hyperbaric oxygen, supplements and diet adjustments, alongside shadow work, energetic healing and talking therapies.
Chemo cycle 2
Feeling rough
My Approach
I use my background in psychology and 3 years of life coaching experience to take an approach focusing on being your own advocate, taking control of your health and decisions, positive mindset techniques, processing the emotions not repressing them, finding purpose and spiritual connections. By working with me 1:1, you also have the option to join my membership 'Unusual Women' - a safe community space with other women going through a similar diagnosis whereby I share resources, live calls and a range of tools that I found useful during my surgery and chemotherapy journey.
How it Works
Have someone to ask all your questions to - for support, guidance and shared experience. I can share what I found helped me through and link you up with a range of resources focused on holistic healing.
We'll have a small group where I'll upload resources to help guide and comfort you. Including things like what to pack in your bag on chemo days, great audios to listen to, products that I found helped.
When we start working together we will map out a programme that works for you specifically. If you are going through chemo, there may be days when the last thing you feel like doing is going on Zoom!
- I'm an accredited ICF coach (qualified in July 2020)
- I've completed intuitive coaching training with Caroline Britton
- I'm certified in Physical Intelligence by the PI Institute
- I'm a Reiki Practitioner Level 2
- I've studied Human Design, Astrology and Numerology over the last 3 years
- Trained in NLP (graduating Sept 2023)
- Since my own Cancer experience I've been on a mission to pursue healing at a deeper level
- I previously ran a membership for 2 years about Intuitive approaches to business, now I am launching a new membership called Unusual Women - you will be a founding member!
Zoom call every fortnight and Telegram inbetween
Zoom call once a month and Telegram inbetween
Pure Telegram mentoring (Monday to Friday)
More about me...
Pricing
Level 1
£444/ month
Level 2
£333/ month
Level 3
£222/ month
The Next Step is...
Telegram Trial Mentoring
Right now, I'm offering a two week trial for just £99- for mentoring via Telegram (does not include Zoom calls). Come and give it a go and we can start working on your goals.
This is a chance for you to trial it out and see if we gel and if Telegram mentoring is the right thing for you.
At the end of the two weeks, you can choose to work with me officially, or if you feel complete and chose not to join there are absolutely zero hard feelings and no pressure from me! I also sometimes offer tailored solutions where it feels aligned.
Two Week Trial Sign up
It all started with feeling something wasn't quite right. I had a pain in my lower abdomen which I initially thought was gynae-related, but after a load of tests, all looked OK.
Then the sister of someone I followed on Instagram got diagnosed with bowel cancer, she was the same age as me, and as she shared some of her symptoms that led to getting diagnosed, I recognised some myself and decided to get a bowel screening test done. (A 'FIT Test')
I found one online by a private health test company 'Lets Get Checked', ordered it and a few weeks later, did the test and sent it off, not thinking too much about it. It came back as abnormal, and from there I self-referred to a Colorectal Specialist who booked me in for a Colonoscopy a few weeks later.
Straight after the Colonoscopy, I could sense it wasn't good news. The doctor told me that she was 95% certain what she'd seen was a 2-3cm cancerous tumour.
My Cancer Story...
I was surprised but also not- I had known *something* wasn't right, so in a way, it was good to get to the bottom of it (literally!)
After a load more CT and MRI scans, they found the tumour was in the Sigmoid Colon and they'd need to remove about a foot of colon, and possibly my left Ovary as it appeared to be attached (my initial thinking that it was a Gynae problem actually wasn't that far off).
I had a Bowel Resection on 9th August 2022, and was in hospital for 5 nights. This photo is the first one I took after surgery to send to family to show I was OK. It took a good few weeks to recover and start to process everything that had happened.
We decided to go ahead with fertility preservation so started this a few weeks after surgery- basically the first half of IVF with the hormone injections and egg harvesting. We managed to get two embryos frozen, though the day after that, I started chemotherapy so didn't have too much time to think about it.
I was really anxious about starting chemotherapy and had convinced myself I'd have a melt down as soon as the drugs started going in, but the nurses were really good at reassuring me and explaining everything as it was happening.
It was a cumulative effect as each cycle became a bit harder than the last, and I was really affected especially with some serious bloating and soreness around my stomach area. I had to have the chemo drug dose reduced a couple of times as after speaking to my oncologist she said the side effects shouldn't be that bad (but how do you know how 'bad' they are supposed to be!)
I spend most of my time on chemo at home in bed or on the sofa and made my way through a LOT of Netflix, TV, reading and audio books. Plus of course just sleeping a lot of the time too.
What I learnt from speaking to others is that chemo affects us all differently and not to compare ourselves- we all respond to the same drugs and dose in different ways and it's not 'good' or 'bad', but we have to find our own unique coping method.
I finished the four rounds of chemo I had been recommended to do just before Christmas last year.
My chemo was given as a preventative measure to blast any remaining cancer cells in my body- they had found cancer cells in one of the lymph nodes they removed. Now the active treatment was finished I found the real shock of everything I'd been through really started to land and mentally I felt worse after chemo than I had during it.
I am still processing everything and have good days and bad days, but for me, I know finding purpose and community in this experience is something I naturally want to do as soon as I feel ready to.
I'm driven to help raise awareness of this and build a supportive community that empowers women to get through this without the huge levels of fear, anxiety and stress we associate with the 'C' word. What if we can actually use our diagnosis as a turning point in our lives- to live more fully and with total gratitude for each day?
