Breast cancer can strike you in the middle of your occupied lives without leaving the slightest trace, and prominent symptoms don’t appear until a late stage. In some cases, it is painless, which is the saddest part because it escapes from being detected thus, until too much harm is already caused.

Never think that you can’t get breast cancer, for anyone can get it, no matter your age or genetics, although that may play a part in it. For your own peace of mind it is better to get checked, then not to and then find out that you have breast cancer and that it has spread.

When you hear the stories of people who have defeated and are still surviving the disease, or when you look back at yourself fighting it at various stages in life, you draw immense strength from the fighting spirit the anecdote rekindles in you. Reserve this strength for times when you’ve almost given up hope or when people make you feel miserable - you’ve earned it.

There are people who can not even think of handling something as gruesome as cancer, and it’s only natural. And not everyone you meet will sympathize with you, or share your grief, and if they did, only tears and mourning would prevail in the world. You will have to stand up alone, gather the courage to talk with doctors and know all there is to be known about the progress of your treatment. You have just one body, and you should do all you can to not let it go.

Your will is all it takes to overcome any force, even breast cancer, the survivors live to reaffirm that. You will feel scared sometimes, and that’s not a sign of weakness. Weakness will be if you feel piling up the fear and give up. Giving more stress to your already diseased body in the form of grief, fear, anger or dismay will worsen things for you. It is not a sin to be sad sometimes or to relieve yourself of worrying through angst - this is all a part of the healing process - just don’t let it get touch your core.

Diverting your attention from it will help you heal mentally and survive it. Your cancer is real, and that is ever so shocking, even months into it, but your purpose is to come out of it untouched. Look at the things that make you happy, do the things you love to do, throw your head back and laugh. You will forget the horrors of the disease and your family and friends will make sure that the disease fades day after day,