I was supposed to be wearing this last night in London for the Business Book Awards. That WAS the plan. But then life happened….

This summer I found a lump in my right breast. After getting it checked, it turned out to be cancer. Not something you want to hear, but something you very quickly respond to.

Suddenly, all my plans changed on a dime. I rushed back from our summer holidays in Canada to start treatment. My girls stayed with my family there without me for the first time ever. Client work was reshaped. Two awards ceremonies I’d been looking forward to, I now had to miss.

But cancer is a word, not a sentence. And since June, alongside the challenges, I’ve felt so much deep gratitude:

🌸 That I found it early, it hadn’t spread, and it wasn’t in my lymph nodes. (Public service announcement: check your breasts, women. And men, remind the women in your lives too.)
🌸 That treatment is working. After my second chemo session, the tumour dissolved completely. Phew!
🌸 That I still have my hair, thanks to an amazing UK invention – the Paxman cooling cap. Truly, it makes all the difference.
🌸 For the unexpected gift of space. My girls grew in incredible ways being in Canada without me over the summer, and now while stepping up when I can’t do as much. And my TIE Leadership team have done things and shone in ways I couldn’t have imagined had this not happened.
🌸 For a deeper connection with my intuition. I’ve become more attuned to when to push, when to pause, what I need, and what I don’t.
🌸 For the love, kindness and community surrounding me. Nurses, friends, family, colleagues, doctors, clients. The messages, the meetings, the visits, the love. An immeasurable power.

This isn’t to say it’s been easy. There have been challenges along the way, of course. But I choose to see this as another tree ring in my life.

An experience that, while unexpected and not my favourite of all time, has brought growth, insights, and thinking in ways I never imagined.

And a reminder that as much as we try and control things, make plans and have everything laid out just as we want…..the universe often has another idea. And we have to be okay with that.

I keep coming back to this question that my friend Nathalie Nahai asked me not long ago. “What are you finding beauty and joy in at the moment?“

They ARE present, even in the hardest moments. And if we can notice them, they change everything.

I have two more chemo sessions left, then minor surgery in November, then much simpler maintenance treatment moving forward.  It’s the new normal for the next little while, but I’m walking it with an unshakable belief in the power of community, kindness and mindset.

And this experience has reminded me of something I’ve always believed: our humanity is not a weakness, it’s our greatest source of strength.