Courage, Brave Amazon
Preface
I have written this book in an attempt to convey the message that even with such a devastating disease as breast cancer, there is hope.
Treatments today are far more aggressive and effective than ever before. Nowadays, many patients make a full recovery, and have an encouraging prognosis after treatment. I sincerely hope that as you read, you may become more aware about breast cancer, and less frightened of it knowing the facts concerning both the disease and the means by which it is treated, than perhaps you have been until now.
More often than not, it is the unknown that creates the most fear. Once we know the facts, once we are aware, we can deal with the reality instead of allowing ourselves to be frightened by our imaginings.
The book tells the story of how I dealt with my breast cancer after I was diagnosed in August 2000, unfailingly supported and sustained by the devoted love and care of Pete, my husband. Not only is this an account of how we lived with and fought the disease, but it is also a love story. It had to be.
My aims in writing the book are to promote awareness, and to help readers not only to gain an insight into what it is actually like to be a breast cancer sufferer, or the partner of one, but also to develop an understanding of how to constructively support someone who s struggling to cope with this disease. The most effective means by which I can achieve these aims is through sharing my experiences with you. I hope my story may assist in raising your existing awareness, also that it may give you reason to believe that to have a mastectomy does not mean the loss of femininity, sexual attractiveness or self-esteem, and that whatever we lose during the course of our lives, Life itself is always worth living.
CR, May 2002