Yolandé Lubbe, Rider
4 year survivor.
Diagnosed: 2005. Age: 50.
Live life without regrets – Carpe Diem
When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust him fully and let go. One of 2 things is bound to happen - either He’ll catch you when you fall, or He’ll teach you how to fly.
I got my wings and started flying after I was diagnosed with breast cancer early in 2005 at the age of 45. In February I had surgery (Lumpectomy), and started my chemotherapy the following month for six months, and under went daily radiation treatment in August for six weeks. After that, I commenced with a 2-year program of implants to suppress estrogen in my body together with a 5-year treatment plan of Tamoxifen. Currently, I still go for intensive tests every 6 months and have been given a clean bill of health.
Cancer is like a like a grumpy bear, if woken from it’s sleep, it wakes with a headache, it’s angry and hungry and starts ripping through the soft green forest in search of sustenance. But if you had laid down some food for it just as it was waking, it would have eaten its fill, surveyed the landscape turned around and slowly slipped down into its nest and reverting back into its deep slumber.
With early detection, my cancer was beaten and that is the message I would like to get through to all women out there. As a survivor and a “bosom buddies” member, I have a passion to motivate others struck by the same life altering disease. I do not see having had cancer as a burden; in fact it changed my life for the better, and I feel that I was given an enormous opportunity to give back with the 2009 Journey of Hope.
It was not a death sentence but rather a new lease on life. I have learnt to live life more over the last 4 years than I did in the 45 years prior to my diagnosis. I have learnt the value of people, love and the choices we make, and in so doing, I have been blessed with the gift of sharing this with others who find themselves in the same initially frightening position.
Everything in this world can be seen as you wish to see it; Good or Bad, Simple or Complicated, Easy or Difficult. It is all about how you look at them.
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