How to be a crone!

Not long after I had my hysterectomy back in early 2010, a female friend, who had had her hysterectomy 12 months previously said "You're a crone now!"

I was quite taken aback at that, until she explained that as a Pagan, a Crone was regarded as a wise woman and a respected elder!

Thoughts of being seen as a wisened up old hag soon disappeared to be replaced by thoughts of being a wise goddess!!!

Ok, maybe thats taking it a bit far, but after some reading up on the subject I began to embrace my "cronehood" and have come to feel quite comfortable in my new skin! My Pagan friends even held a small croning ceremony for me to honour my transition.

And why not! There are many female orientated organisations around the world who seek to honour a young girls transition into womanhood and we as women, celebrate the transition of our sisters into Mothers so why do we not honour the third age of womanhood in the same way?

The word "crone" has become a derogatory word and its time to reclaim it and return it to its proper use - as a way of describing a woman who has lived a full and eventful life and has many experiences and words of wisdom to pass down.

I remember as a young child, spending time with my Grandmother, in the kitchen or walking round the garden. She would tell me what flowers and herbs were good for helping sore throats; what to do with the dried flower heads in order to save the seeds for next year! I know now that she was doing what her Grandmother had done, and all the previous Grandmothers before. They were passing on their knowledge to the next generation.

If you look across many cultures, it is women that hold society together. In our modern day fight for equal rights, have we lost sight of the fact that being a woman is a very important part of who we are?
We are responsible for the next generation; it is us they look to for the skills to get them through the early part of their life.

Even if some of us don't have children of our own we still have a role to play. Being an Aunt can be just as rewarding as being a Mum.

So, at 49 I am approaching that milestone that many women dread. But actually, I'm quite looking forward to it! I intend to celebrate my cronehood; be happy in who I am.

Having cancer made me realise that its pointless stressing about things that you can't change; a wise woman would have know that! I had to learn the hard way, but its a lesson that I won't forget in a hurry!

Honour the wise woman within you!

Peach Ponderings

Here is another guest blog for you to read.

My ponderings are peach because I’ve been on an unexpected journey with womb cancer and, as all followers of Kaz’s WCSUK blog will no doubt know, peach is the colour for womb cancer.

I can’t say exactly when the womb cancer journey began for me because who knows when the cancer joined me. Maybe it took a long time to introduce itself, maybe not, but when I finally found out I had a companion I didn’t recognise its name, I knew nothing about it and I didn’t know anyone else who’d been through what I was experiencing. How ironic that, having been taught never to talk to strangers, there I was harbouring one and taking it with me wherever I went. I’d picked up a hitchhiker without realising.

I’ve since found out that approximately 1900 women die from womb cancer each year in the UK and around 8000 annually in the US. I also know that, far from being alone, there is support out there for women who need it. That support is being provided at WCSUK  by other women who’ve been through womb cancer, or by those who’ve lost loved ones to it. It’s no longer as it was when I was diagnosed, I’m no longer alone and you don’t have to be either.

 

Here a blog, there a blog!!!

During September's Womb Cancer  Awareness Campaign we had some guest bloggers write for us here and it was great to see the response that they got. Some of the stories were quite harrowing and some very inspirational. Many thanks to all the lovely ladies who agreed to write for us.

I'd like to share a couple of blogs posts that I came across over the past couple of days and I hope that you will read them and then pass on the links as I think they make very good reading and deserve to be more widely seen.

The first is by a young man who I first came across a few weeks back when I found a blog post he had written about his Mother who had sadly died of womb cancer. It was a moving blog and I reposted it on our FB page. Shortly after, Dan contacted us via the FB page. Turns out that he is in The Philippines and there is a lack of information and support there for women going through womb cancer. Within a few hours, Dan had set up a FB page of his own to fill the void. He is also doing a blog and he has reposted the original post that first alerted me to him. Please read it and share it. It doesn't matter where in the world we are, womb cancer can strike any women.

http://endometrialcancerphilippines.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-woman-named-jocelyn.html


The second blog post that I'd like to share with you is one that I could easily have written myself. It explains exactly how I felt, and still feel about my journey with cancer.

http://imjustsarahcate.tumblr.com/post/33154691916/i-am-not-your-hero

I hope that you will read and share this blog posts and maybe they will inspire you to write something yourself about your cancer journey. If so, please let us know and we'll glady share it here.

Until next time, stay peachy!!!!

Why we're not into pink!!

Well, Septembers womb cancer awareness campaign has now finished and what a busy month it was.

We had lots of great guest blogs from some very inspirational ladies that were read far and wide, according to the analytics. I really want to say a huge big thank you to the ladies that were prepared to share their stories on here; it was very brave of you.

The videos that were made and put over on our youtube channel were also well received. You can view our uploads here http://www.youtube.com/user/WombCancerSupportUK/videos?flow=grid&view=0

Our turn Facebook peach campaign was a great success. It was very uplifting to log on each morning and see lots of peach related updates. A lot of the women in the group had spread the word amongst their friends so by the middle of the month there were peach statuses popping up from all over the world - it was great!!!

Hopefully we have succeeded in raising awareness about womb cancer and many more women are now informed about the signs and symptoms to look out for.

However, just because September is over doesn't mean that the awareness raising stops. It does become slightly more difficult though as we try to "be seen" amongst the tidal wave of pink that is everywhere - in the media; on the web; on tele; in the shops! It seems anything and everything has had a "pink" makeover.

This is just my personal opinion, but I know its one that is shared by many.
Cancer is cancer. A person who gets breast cancer is just as important as someone who gets womb cancer; or lung cancer; or bowel cancer or prostate cancer or any other cancer. The whole industry, and thats basically what it is; that has grow up around breast cancer in the last 20+ years hasn't resulted in less women being diagnosed with  breast cancer. In fact the numbers have gone up alarmingly.

 I would urge you to read "Pink Ribbon Blues" by Gayle Sulik http://gaylesulik.com/  and form your own opinion but I think there needs to be a radical rethink in the way that cancer research as a whole is funded so that rarer cancers (and by that I mean cancers where only a small percentage of the population are affected) are not left out in the cold.

So, on a matter of principle, I won't be wearing pink during October. I want all cancers treated equally and all cancer patients deserving of equal respect.

Cancer kills - it doesn't care what colour ribbon you happen to be wearing!