This makes me sad

I learned from my friend today that Jac lost her life to breast cancer. I didn’t know Jac but I knew a little about her story. She was diagnosed after me. I remember when my friend told me that her friend was diagnosed. I offered to be a point of contact, but Jac didn’t reach out – that is OK, not everyone diagnosed needs or wants a distant person to talk to.

I make it a point to engage with anyone that makes the effort to reach out to me, as so many distant and close people have been there for me.

Learning of Jac’s recurrence and progression saddened me. That was only two weeks ago, so it was a bit of a shock when I returned to my hotel room this evening to learn of her death. It was too fast. It is hard to explain how the death of someone I never knew could shake me, but it does. She is the first person that I know, who was diagnosed after me, to die. She was 34 and a young mother (she found her lump while pregnant, it was dismissed as nothing to worry about), which makes this extra sad.

I knew this day would come. I know that at some point several of my new friends are going to die – metastatic breast cancer (that is when breast cancer spreads to bones, liver, lungs, brain) kills. It makes me sad.