Caroline, a Barrister, is a Macmillan Wellbeing Centre client who recorded her open and honest thoughts around her cancer diagnosis on a personal blog. She has kindly agreed to them being reproduced here.
I first made contact with the centre after my second session of chemotherapy when I thought I would benefit from some support. I really enjoyed the relaxation sessions and the mindfulness sessions. I also had some reflexology sessions at the centre which was extremely relaxing. I am currently part way through a course of yoga. I am also booked on the waiting list for counselling, which I had initially declined.
Ladies Day May 2015…..
today, Friday, I was at a “Ladies day”, put on by the Macmillan Centre.
The Ladies day was not only for cancer people, but also their carers and relatives. There were about 40 people there. We had a talk from an 8 year breast cancer survivor; We learnt about the benefits of pandiculation (yawning and stretching) using a little rubbery man – It’s similar to a stress ball; We had a talk from Boots No. 7 who work in partnership with Macmillan cancer, learned about buying the correct sized bra and listened to some live guitar music. After lunch there were stands to have hand massage, nails done and the No 7 people were doing make – up.
One of the No. 7 ladies had not yet done her cancer training and I heard her ask a colleague, “Do all the eyelashes come out?” I think she was not expecting the answer to be yes.
I was approached by one of the ladies attending to tell me I had been nominated to say some words of thanks to the organisers as apparently I seemed like the kind of person who would be good at that sort of thing! I suppose that’s promising as standing up and speaking is an important part of my job. I think it went well. I thanked the organisers not just for Ladies day but for every day for giving us somewhere safe when we are having a difficult time. I also thanked the people who came and did presentations for making sure we looked nice and had correctly supported boobs!
The centre is a wonderful resource. I can see, having reviewed my blog there are several posts where I write about attending the centre and I am grateful for the care and support of everyone who works or volunteers there.
Caroline, July 2015
