2008 was to end badly, with a very good friend dying. She was 31, married with a baby, and shortly before her return from maternity leave had been diagnosed with something called Inflammatory Breast Cancer. It’s not a typical breast cancer as it comes up as a rash rather than a lump. They gave her chemo, then a mastectomy followed by radiotherapy, but it wasn’t enough. She died a few days before Christmas, only 9/10 months from the initial onset of her symptoms. Her daughter was 20 months. I was blindsided. I knew it was an aggressive cancer, but it was my first experience of what ‘aggressive’ in relation to cancer meant. I don’t think I imagined for a moment that she wouldn’t live. I was so sad for her, her husband and her daughter. I remember that the latest iPhone had just been released. This was the height of technology, so how could my friend die leaving a child? It seemed so Dickensian. So I went into 2009 on a massive downer.
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