Hello

I'm Tanya, based near Newquay in Cornwall. I was diagnosed in 2021...screen-detected DCIS, which turned out to also be a 35mm grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma. By the time we had the full picture, 20 out of 31 lymph nodes were positive. There was also a worrying adrenal mass diagnosed as a secondary, which thankfully turned out to be a false positive (the relief of that moment is hard to describe).

I had a wide local excision, axillary clearance, weekly paclitaxel, a cycle of epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (stopped due to severe toxicity), and radiotherapy. I was on anastrozole for a year and a half, switched to exemestane, and completed a two-year course of abemaciclib. I'm now on the Elegant drug trial with elacestrant.

I'm not sharing all of that to overwhelm anyone, I doubt anyone here would be. You've been through your own version of this. The physical side is one thing. But navigating life during and after cancer, in a county where there is so little community support? That's its own very particular kind of hard.

Cornwall is beautiful, and I wouldn't be anywhere else. But it's also vast, rural, and genuinely isolated when it comes to the kind of connection and support that people going through cancer need and deserve.

I'd love for us to start something here, a little Cornwall corner of this community. Somewhere to check in with each other, share what local support does exist, and simply know there's someone not too far away who truly understands.

If you're in Cornwall, I'd love to connect. 

Tanya