An existential approach to cancer | Letter
by Letters from Science | The Guardian on (#4T4EM)
Online you can find miracle cures, writes Aliya Hasan, but only existentialism resonates
It is breast cancer awareness month. As someone with secondary breast cancer I am aware of the disease every day. Since I was diagnosed last August I've been in a muddle about how to square it mentally and emotionally. Although my treatment is working, nobody knows how long for.
Stage IV, secondary, advanced, metastatic, call it what you want, brings guilt and confusion about how best to be with and leave family and friends. Some may have a solution and put pressure on you to spend time at a clinic in Germany or source cannabis-related drugs or watch videos of people who have survived. I don't understand how someone can know the cancer has pushed off for good until they die of something else.
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