Four operations in five months changes you in ways you don’t expect. Not just physically, although that part is obvious, but mentally and emotionally too, in quiet ways you only begin to understand once things finally slow down. When you’re first told you need surgery for breast cancer, you think about the operation itself, not what it means to walk the same hospital corridors again and again, to face the 2am fear and the familiar hospital gown more times than you can count. Somewhere along the way, you realise that control no longer means managing every outcome; instead, it becomes about how you meet each moment – choosing calm where you can, trusting the professionals around you, and discovering a quieter, steadier strength you didn’t know you had.

The journey with yourself and your personal growth, be it physical or mental is never ending.