We all navigate and manage the reality of cancer in our own way.
I choose to manage my day-to-day brushes with the cancer experience as a resistance fighter. In other words, I resist being a patient and the patient label.
I do what I can to resist illness by focusing on wellness and living deliberately.
I do this by whatever means necessary and I engage in various sabotage missions because my life depends on it.
This involves plenty of hoodwinking, subversion tactics and deceptions. And that means applying plenty of guile and gumption and throwing grit into the system.
Seen another way, resistance is actually a constructive and productive force and a dynamic determinant for bringing about hope and optimism.
There is plenty that the medical profession can do to help us but we have to do our bit too. We have to make a difference and be the difference.
Fighting cancer is a fight for freedom with the ultimate aim of getting out of the woods. We all want to be told we are NED – ‘No Evidence of Disease’.
A resistance fighter is fervently ‘anti-cancer’ and so will do what it takes to get in the way.
Being part of the ‘Resistance’ means all the ‘usual stuff‘ such as staying fit, maintaining a healthy weight, eating a healthy diet, avoiding alcohol, avoiding tobacco and vapes, avoiding pollutants, avoiding excessive sun-exposure, knowing your family medical history and getting enough sleep and taking naps. Importantly, it is being an active agent in your own disease management
But resistance is much more than that. It is also
- staying positive, punchy, upbeat and grateful
- challenging discourse and knowledge
- pushing back and disrupting expectations
- utilising our innate resilience
- rejecting the ‘patient’ label and reclaiming your identity
- fighting from a place of wellness not illness
- being anti-fragile
- tackling myths, misconceptions, legends and stereotypes about cancer
- being a champion of hope
- modelling grit and determined living
- displaying fortitude, conviction, tenacity, and resolve
- always deploying a sense of humour
Those acts of resistance are certainly within reach of us all but it is sometimes easy to neglect them and focus on just one or two.
The way we can help ourselves is to learn to co-exist with uncertainty and to cope effectively with anxiety and fear including the fear of death by being pro-active. It is finding a sense of direction and tapping into our inner spirit.
The ultimate resistance fighter of course is our own immune system. Sometimes this fails us or it is outwitted by cancer but we can do plenty to help it. Keeping well is an act of resistance.
We are the resistance cells that are doing what we can to fight the cancer occupation and if that means guerrilla warfare then so be it.
The role of everyday resistance is securing and protecting our health and well-being.
We therefore have to exploit what we can to challenge, undermine, and ultimately counter power anything that threatens our health. But I don’t mean snake oil health ‘cures’ and other such toxic nonsense as they harm our well-being.
Resistance is essential to our survival. It isn’t futile, it’s oppositional courage with intellect and attitude. It’s the ultimate in self-preservation. It’s down to us to create a legacy of subversion and defiance.
We have to keep fighting and ensure our flame of resistance is never extinguished. Even with cancer, we can create a better world for ourselves.