I’m curious — did all of them fully accept that there was no hope and the end was nigh? My own cancer was stage three and aggressive; in fact, if not for a fairly new drug at the time, it had historically always been fatal. Other than a few minutes (as in, actual minutes) when I first found out, I simply didn’t accept the possibility that it could kill me — I had to see my kids grow up. People say a positive attitude improves your odds but it’s probably just luck.

Do keep up with regular Pap smears and mammograms, whatever else you might do! I was only a couple months late for my annual, and mostly just went because my sister got diagnosed, and that’s when they caught it. Just a little over a year before, I had a clean bill of health, and then I had a massive tumor (yet somehow not detectable by self exam — so one never knows. The world needs Ezinne!