Keeping A Breast

Deni Brown, writer of comic strips and other things, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of sixty-something. Living alone (well not quite, there was always a cat or two), near picturesque False Bay coastline in Cape Town, surviving on a freelancer’s salary, she had no family to support her, no medical aid, no pension fund to draw from, no big savings account. She wondered How the hell am I going to get through this on my own? But she reckoned without her network of close friends, and, oh yes, the friends on Facebook, who spread their wings and helped her through it. She discovered cancer funding organisations willing to pay the accounts as she braved a public hospital and the horrors of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She met caring medical staff, made new friends, and ultimately she did it, not quite on her own. Trying to see the funny side of cancer and thinking no way did she go through all that for nothing, she kept a journal of her experiences, although she had to touch on the dark side as well. If you’re going into battle, you need to be forewarned and forearmed, so this story, accompanied by helpful tips and insights, bursts of simple Haiku, and illustrations by some of the country’s leading cartoonists, will hopefully encourage and inspire.