My story really got started about 4 years ago, when I was diagnosed with cancer. Until then I had played it fairly safe with life. I worked hard in a corporate job, spent my annual leave going on nice holidays and, on the odd weekend I wasn’t glued to my emails, I would squeeze in some time outside. Every aspect of my life felt rushed and half-hearted. I was anxious and unfulfilled but I couldn’t work out why – there was nothing wrong.  After almost five years of climbing the ladder I started getting itchy feet and with enough money saved, I decided to take some time out and travel for a few months..

I went eco-adventuring in remote locations all over the world. I hiked through the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces of southwest China, rode horse back through Outer Mongolia, crossed the most isolated parts of Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway and spent two months over landing through sub-Saharan Africa where I first encountered, and fell in love with, the rhino. 

Three months after returning home I was diagnosed with cancer. I was 26 years old and the news came as a complete shock. When you’re faced with death, the reasons you want to live suddenly become overwhelmingly clear – and that’s what you fight for.  Lying in my hospital bed after my operation to remove the tumour, I could visualise the life I wanted and a clear sense of direction that I’d never experienced before. I just needed a second chance to follow through with it. 

I finished my radiotherapy treatment and went back to work shortly afterwards. Despite the epiphany I felt in hospital, the reality was that I craved the certainty and familiarity of routine that cancer had taken. It soon fizzled out and the only familiar thing was that same hollow feeling of emptiness I felt before I went travelling, but this time it was laced with guilt too. And then I walked into the office on a dreary Wednesday morning and quit my job.

I didn’t have a plan for the future but cancer, for all its downfalls, had gaven me the quiet confidence to throw myself into everything whole-heartily and follow the life I imagined. I wanted to love every single day.  I wanted to feel connected to the world. I wanted to pursue experiences that gave me a sense of purpose and meaning, and pushed my mind and body in every possible sense. I wanted to feel alive. That meant spending more time with my precious family, and fighting for issues that were important to me. But, above all, it meant getting outside in the silence, stillness and solitude of nature – the place I felt my happiest.

This blog is a both a personal record of my milestones and achievements to look back on, but also a way of sharing my journey in the hope that someone reading it might find the courage and power within themselves to have the courage to face the fear of the unknown to find the life of their dreams.

I’ve been in remission for a few year years and I’m deeply in love with my life. It’s been scary, difficult and exhausting but quitting my job and shaking up my world has been the best decision I've ever made. I’m incredibly grateful for the cards I've been dealt and the new sense of perspective I have and I’m excited for and all the challenges and opportunities that still lie ahead.

Lizzie x

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