My Cancer Recovery Journey
My name is Yvonne, I am a 46-year old married mother of three young daughters.
In September 2009 I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer with a secondary tumour in my lung. I underwent two major surgeries to remove the bowel and lung tumours in October and November 2009 and started a six-month course of chemotherapy in Jan 2010 followed by further bowel surgery in Aug 2010.
I am now cancer free and have had a clear colonoscopy and two clear CT scans – the most recent in April 2011.
Taking an Holistic Approach
Around Christmas 2009 following my surgeries I began to examine my treatment and recovery in a wider more holistic sense. I had been lucky that my surgery was so successful and physically I was recovering well but I felt I could not ignore the shock, anxiety and trauma triggered by the events of the last 4 months and my general state of well-being leading up to my diagnosis. My treatment in the NHS had been on the whole been excellent but I was emotionally and psychologically drained and scarred and knew that the mental battle to beat this disease and prevent any recurrence was just as important as it had been to cut out my tumours and to undergo my chemotherapy. I read up about the holistic and complementary approaches to the treatment of cancer and knew that I needed to include this in my own treatment plan.
Primrose Cottage Retreat Support
I knew Sally Rosemary through our daughters and mutual friends and was aware that she ran a holistic therapy practice from her home just outside Whittington. Just after my first cycle of chemo I went to Primrose Cottage for our first session. Immediately I felt at home in every sense. Sally is an open, warm, generous person and her garden treatment room is a gentle, fragrant and relaxing environment.
What struck me first was how different this was to the hospital environments in which I had received all my conventional medical treatment with their bright lights, stark wards, busy schedules and overcrowded waiting areas offering little privacy or emotional support.
Sally greeted me with a hug, a cup of warm herbal tea and a hot foot spa while we sat and chatted about my illness and experiences and the treatments that Sally could offer. She decided that her Life Alignment treatment was my priority that day and as I relaxed onto the treatment bed which overlooks a beautiful meadow where horses graze and rabbits appear at the door I felt I had taken such an enormous and positive step towards my recovery.
After the treatment I cried with relief that I had found somewhere and someone that was going to help and support me through this nightmare that my life had become. I felt safe, cared for and nurtured, feelings that I had not experienced since my diagnosis four months previously. My fear, anxiety, nausea, racing heart and shaky hands had at last subsided.
Not only does Sally offer me the time and space for relaxing therapies such as Reiki, Reflexology and Life Alignment we talk about the wider spiritual, emotional, holistic aspects of life and illness and she offers advice and support that has enabled me to keep control of my anxiety and recover my health. I am convinced that my regular sessions with Sally during my treatment were essential to my physical and emotional recovery from life threatening metastatic cancer – I certainly needed the skill and resource of the surgeons and oncologists but just as importantly I needed to win the mental battle with this disease and I could not have done that without the complementary element of my treatment provided by Sally.
By overcoming cancer and through my sessions with Sally I have examined closely many issues that were affecting my physical and emotional well-being and intend to continue regular treatments at Primrose Cottage as a part of my ongoing recovery. I do believe that anyone affected by cancer either as a patient them self or a carer or loved one of someone battling this disease will truly benefit from the services Sally offers. They will find comfort and peace in the beautiful rural environment and time to relax and reflect away from the stress of the situation they coping with on a daily basis. I always leave Sally with a sense of renewed energy, my spirits lifted and that my soul has been nurtured.
June 2011