At the recent Hay Festival in Wales, British comedian Sara Pascoe responded to a fan's question with an answer that was both heartwarming and brilliant. The fan asked:

If you could tell 14-year-old you what you have achieved, what would you tell her and why?

Through tears, Pascoe responded:

The really s**t thing about being young is that you haven’t been through stuff yet. So, the first time it happens is the worst. Right?

I’ll give you the example of heartbreak. When you get your heart broken for the first time, you’ve got no defences because you don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know how it feels, and you trust. And so that heartbreak, when you're crying so hard on the floor, and you think everything's done—

The horrible thing about older people, maybe your parents or other people who care about you, is when they say, "You’re going to be okay, and this will make you stronger," and "You were so brave to love in the first place," all of it feels so unhelpful.

And when you get your heart broken a second time, it might be just as bad, just as painful, but it's painful with the knowledge that you recovered once. And that life went on. And that you laughed again and you enjoyed music again, and that’s the difficulty with context.

"Painful with the knowledge that you recovered once...that life went on...that you laughed again and enjoyed music again."

Those words are powerful, not just to the heartbroken teenager, but to the middle-aged person who hears the words, "You have cancer." They seem especially fitting on National Cancer Survivors Day.

Having experience with cancer doesn't make it easier to hear, a second time, "You have cancer," but it does make it easier to believe that life goes on (more often than not), that you can get through the treatment, and that better days are ahead.

Knowing that someone else faced cancer, underwent treatment and is now doing well may not help in the immediate hours or days after a cancer diagnosis, but I believe that knowing these things does help in the long run. After I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2020, I took enormous comfort in hearing the stories of cancer survivors and cancer thrivers. It gave me hope.

That's why I continue to share my cancer story—to give someone else hope, context and encouragement as they embark on their own cancer journey.

Giving others hope is also the reason why my cancer story is about more than the disease. It's about a funny comment that a doctor made after my surgery, or the tremendous care I received from nurses when undergoing chemotherapy, or a book I read while recovering from radiation. It's about the living I did even while in active cancer treatment and the joys I'm experiencing post cancer treatment.