By Joanna Moorhead – The Guardian.
The chief medical officer advises women to think about cancer when having a drink. But if I did that every time I had a glass of wine, I think I’d feel the cancer had won
Two years ago I was diagnosed with a breast cancer that I believe was alcohol-related (it was a lobular tumour, the less common kind that many people link to alcohol). But here I am today, sitting in a restaurant about to have lunch with a friend – and a glass or two of wine is definitely on the horizon.
If you’d told me back then what was going to happen to me I’d probably have imagined that, if I was lucky enough to survive, I’d definitely be giving up alcohol. After all, chief medical officer Sally Davies has said that she thinks about the risk of breast cancer every time she has a glass of wine – and the inference of what she says is that the risks aren’t worth it, and she usually sticks to water – and hasn’t even had the disease itself. I have survived it and my cancer, for various reasons to do with the treatment options I took, isn’t a shoo-in for not coming back.
So why on earth do I still drink, when that nightmare has already visited me once? And there truly were terrible moments on my cancer journey; it was a scary mountain to climb, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else.
I guess what it comes down to is quite simply the importance of enjoying life. When I had cancer, I discovered that I didn’t just want to survive…Read the full story.
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