Cancer And Being A Dude

According to good old Wikipedia,

Dude is American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner or a conspicuous citified person who was visiting a rural location, a “city slicker”.

For the purposes of my blog, dude applies to all.

Now, being a dude isn’t something we’d normally associate with cancer but it does have a connection.

You see, we need to keep looking our best when we are at our worst.

Cancer, surgery and cancer treatment can all take their toll and alter our physical appearance and I know from raw experience how self-conscious you become. It knocks your self-confidence for six.

It’s not just about losing hair either. For head and neck cancer patients, it is losing your profile facially.

I struggle to get clothes that fit me because my radical neck dissection drastically altered my collar size and surgery to my jaw altered my face.

Then there is the obvious weight loss associated with cancer.

None of my clothes fitted me after my surgery and treatment because I lost a couple of stone. I’ve never been able to regain that ‘bulk’ and muscle back.

As a result, nearly all my clothes went to charity and I had to start again. This is one of the many hidden costs of cancer.

Cancer strips you of your identity and it strips you of your wardrobe.

You can feel unkempt and uncomfortable while going through treatment and on top of this, some of the fabrics you wear can react to treatment too.

Before cancer, I used to love dressing smartly and my previous work as a teacher demanded it.

I also love dressing up and wearing different hats! I think this goes back to my childhood and watching Mr Benn!

We might not be able to afford a whole new wardrobe but being smart and being a dude doesn’t have to stop when cancer hits us.

It’s really important to feel good when you go through cancer and one way of doing that is through our attire.

Clothes, hats, hair and make-up all play their part in this.

Cancer can makes us look pretty terrible at times but we can meet this head-on and body-on by still looking good.

This requires us to have the backbone to keep going and to gain some control over our lives again whilst being grateful we are still here.

Cancer is a wolf in sheep’s clothing so we have to alter our own and fight back.

You see being a dude is all about three things: forti’dude’, atti’dude’ and grati’dude’.

If wearing a special hat makes you feel dapper and dandy then do it, do it for you and do it for those around you and let them know you are still in the game. You can give Beau Brummell a run for his money if the mood takes you!

Fashion becomes a way for you to reclaim your identity and your body through cut, quality, colour and decoration.

You can ‘dress better, brighter, and more dramatically‘, if you want or thread carefully and just keep things simple by going for elegance and style.

This doesn’t mean you have to reinvent your personal look but it might be the opportunity to try something new and be someone different.

How we present ourselves to the world is about self-care, restoring our sense of self and boosting our self-esteem.

So, let’s look the part and focus on improving our psychological wellness by power-dressing during and beyond cancer treatment.

How you dress during cancer treatment has a real impact on your sense of wellbeing.

If one chooses to be a dude, then be one with forti’dude’ and atti’dude’! Oh, and don’t forget the grati’dude’!