Life is beautiful
To all women who have been diagnosed, are ill or are being treated for breast cancer, with courage, faith and strength!
Athina Pappa, a well-known director and actress, that recently went viral on social media, by sharing a post that talks about the “truth” in the soul of a woman, who has started the painful journey to treat breast cancer and discovers that “life is beautiful”.
Once again, I realize how beautiful every life is, despite all the suffering, the sorrows, the socio-economic problems that each of us has. And yes, we live in an era of a pandemic that found us unprepared, flattened us financially and psychologically, kept us in uncertainty, changed our habits and added more stress to our daily lives.
However, let us not forget that cancer pre-existed the virus and continues to “reap” humanity despite the development of science in this field. This post is mainly about women who have been diagnosed, are ill, or are being treated for breast cancer.
With this message, I want to give a positive and optimistic message for the treatment of the disease to strengthen and inspire with courage, faith and strength all of us, for all that we go through, every day.
I’m not an expert, I’m not a psychologist, I’m not a hero, I’m not a super girl –and super girls don’t cry- as the song goes… I am nothing but a woman who has faced and still faces illness every day, who cries, fears, panics, but at the same time loves life, believes in it, wants to live, to create, to exist, to love and to be loved, to laugh, to cry, to write, to direct, to play. I am a woman like all of us, who’s now going through one of the worst diseases and has relentlessly received psychological shock – diagnosis – amputation – chemotherapy. It’s not easy!!!
After the diagnosis, and going through hell and high water with all the fears, doubts and dilemmas that one may have in these cases, I turned inward, taking a deeper look inside myself.
I realized that every day I allowed garbage inside myself, useless things and feelings, coming from personal or professional relationships that were tearing me apart, weakening me mentally and physically and resulting in this illness.
Realizing all this, I understood that if I want to live, firstly I must love myself. From the beginning! As it is now and not as it was before. To love my current image and not to hate it. To admire it and not to feel sorry for it. I like my empty hairless head and to see it as an opportunity to create new images with it. To get acquainted with my trauma in order to heal it. I am grateful for what is happening to me because I came closer to myself, I came closer to those I love. I am grateful for everything that life has given me so far! I am grateful that I am not alone. I have a good partner who holds my hand, who believes in me and my will for life, who does not see me and does not treat me like a patient, but who mainly loves me, deeply, essentially, consciously.
I am grateful because I have two remarkable children, who support and care for me, who like me and take care of me, even from afar. As my siblings love and care for me some of my many friends. Above all, love counts! Love is medicine, balm for the soul! Love and acceptance from someone close to you, your family, your children, your friends. You do not need many, even one is enough.
As long as they are always there, next to you, close to you. Even if you do not have anyone, I am by your side, we are by your side and we are many to give you relief, consolation, company. It is the sun, the sea, the air, the light, life that is with you and is still here for you. Do not fall!
Do not be sorry! Rejoice every moment you breathe, every moment you see the light! Life is beautiful! And it is up to us to live it as best as we can! With allies and friends the doctors that I trust and are worth mentioning, Flessas Ioannis, Breast Surgeon, Panagiotis Daskalakis of Center of Breast Diseases at General Hospital Elena Venizelou, oncologist Spiros Chalikias and my older friends, doctors Giorgos Kiosses, otolaryngologist, and George Skarpas, orthopedic, that advised me and stood next to me in this difficult time.
Also a great support for all of us, is Alma Zois – the Panhellenic Association of Women with Breast Cancer, which offers various services on a non-profit basis.
