Today the Dear Melanoma Facebook Page reached the big 10 000!!! It would be silly to not recognise and celebrate this milestone.

Over the last two years Dear Melanoma has become a very important part of my life. The blog has given me purpose and something to concentrate on when the world around me felt like it was falling to pieces.

I was diagnosed with advanced cancer after returning from working in East Timor for a year – I was only 22. I had no workplace surrounding me that could support me and allow me to continue work. If I did want to work, I would have to go in being honest about everything that came along with having cancer, terminal cancer. Dear Melanoma has become my job. Even though I do not receive a salary, it has given me the structure of a job. It has given me the pride and the aspirations that come with a career. As the blog has grown, so has the roles that have come with the blog – speaker, advocate, published writer, fundraiser. The blog most definitely keeps me busy and limits the time I spend in the ‘woe is me’ frame of mind.

It was two years ago that my cancer diagnosis became public knowledge. I had not kept my cancer diagnosis secret and not hidden the fact that I had rushed home from East Timor to have surgery in August 2013, but I hadn’t openly spoken about my terminal prognosis received in October of that year and my three month prognosis that I was given in January 2014. Beyond my family and closest of friends, I wasn’t ready to talk openly. I wasn’t prepared to be bombarded with a rush of phone calls and texts from acquaintances that wanted to catch up and say their goodbyes. All I could focus on was making sure that I was well enough for our wedding and to meet my new nephew.

This all changed when my dear friend Rebecca Sparrow who I had only known for a short time asked my permission to write about me in March 2014.