No. 3. The Dreaded ‘C’ Word…. First of all i think it’s important that we address this matter head on. We’re talking about cancer. A disease in which 1 in every 2 of us will be affected by at some point in their lives. A disease that rips through families with no remorse or guilt as to who it effects, And a disease which has effected both me and my family in recent years.
Like most kids growing up, even into my teens, i feel like i was sheltered quite a bit from cancer, i knew it was a horrible illness but that’s as far as my knowledge went really. We were extremely fortunate to never have been directly effected by cancer as a family when i was growing up, even when it was brought up in conversation or i saw it on the tele, it was almost like it was a bit of a taboo subject (and i feel like this is similar in most households).
first became majorly aware of cancer when my dad shared a story of his own cancer scare when he was 21. Without going into too much detail, dad found a lump, no larger than the size of a small pea on one of his testicles when he was doing a routine check. After leaving it for about a week or two he decided to get it checked out at the doctors however the checks they did were inconclusive, at that point he was sent for surgery to remove the lump. Luckily the results came back negative and it was found to be a harmless cyst!
Whilst the results were a positive, it certainly scared my dad (as it would anyone!) and he was probably the first major influence i had when it came to carrying out full and extensive checks on my two boys down there!
My dads scare also gave me an excuse to bring up the conversation of lumps and bumps on my own balls when i had found something myself… I think my conversation starter was “what was dads’ lump like mum” and that was that!
(As stated in my previous post, these posts are a daily thing for as long as it takes to spread my story and my awareness! The next one will be on tomorrow at around the same time. Please remember this is all about spreading awareness as i know i’m not the first and will not be the last to have a story like this so please like, share, comment, ask questions, ANYTHING)
