What does cancer resistance look like?
As a head and neck cancer patient I have my own unique challenges that make life continually testing.
- When I eat, swallow and choke every meal time, that is resistance because I don’t give up and resort to a feeding tube.
- When I speak with a broken jaw and without a tongue, that is resistance because I still need to be heard.
- When I lose teeth and get infections in my crumbling jaw but keep smiling, that is resistance.
As cancer patients, our daily lives are full of challenges and our own particular cancers present specific hardships that mean we have to resist and fight in the best ways we can. To succumb is not an option.
Here’s what cancer resistance might also look like:
To get up each day is to resist
To smile in defiance of the pain is to resist
To cleanse your mind while your body is being poisoned is to resist
To be gentle despite feeling angry is to resist
To laugh during treatment is to resist
To be independent in the face of vulnerability is to resist
To hope in the face of overwhelming odds is to resist
To be on your knees and not defeated is to resist
To fight for your cancer rights is to resist
To climb the stairs when you are exhausted is to resist
To go for a walk when you are bone-tired is to resist
To go on holiday and enjoy yourself is to resist
To celebrate the little wins is to resist
To decorate the world with positivity is to resist
To always find the silver linings is to resist
To outlive your diagnosis is to resist
To look forward to the future with incurable cancer is to resist
To resist is good for our mental health because it gives us back some control and allows us to throw a spanner in the works, upset the apple cart, to subvert and to dethrone the ‘Emperor of All Maladies’.
Daily acts of resistance ensure that we don’t make it easy for cancer. It strengthens our fortitude and sends a message that we will not roll over.
To resist is to keep going even when you don’t want to and your energy supplies feel depleted.
To resist is all about pressing on and making every act count. We can’t allow ourselves to be pressed down.
Keep on pressing and keep pressing on. That is cancer resistance.