Cancer Never Wins

I have a childhood friend, Fritz, whos sister Jane has been battling rectal cancer for years now. She writes an amazing carepages update which is often filled with very powerful, insightful thoughts on living with cancer. I want to post a quote from Jane I read today which I think is important and makes a strong point. Here it is:

"So I battle. Not with cancer - I have a problem with that word, "battle," when it comes to the cancer experience. It is an obvious and useful metaphor - battle, war, warrior, soldier - I get it. But then what happens when one passes? We say they "lost the battle" or "after a long battle with cancer" or words similar. Believe me, anyone who has had cancer doesn't need to be saddled with being named a "loser" in any sense of the word. What does that make cancer? The victor? Yuck. Cancer is never victorious."

I liked to say battle cancer. But I just might change that thinking based on Janes comments. I will still say survivor, because to me that denotes winning. Heidi gets her 1 year scan results back tomorrow and I am happy to say I can attend the appointment with her to support whatever we hear. It is one thing to be along with the cancer survivor to hear the results, it is completely different to be the cancer survivor getting the results. I will try to remember that.

Reserve Grand Champion for Isabelle

You have to love a sport where second place is called "Reserve Grand Champion". It seems only dog shows where you can win "Reserve Winners Bitch" for second place rivals this. So that is what Isabelle did a week ago on Kitty. As you can see from the photo she competed in 5 classes 3 Walk, Trot, Canter over crossrails and then two flat classes. She got two firsts, a second, third and fourth. The sum total of points made her second best on the day. This was done on her new saddle which she is so proud of and now has displayed in her room. So the slippery slope of the equestrian world is luring us in. We are now looking into her riding on an IEA team in the coming months. That is the equivalent of the school riding team.