In 2018, doctors told me to aim for three years of life. Yet here I am five years later - still bringing home the clear scans!
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 while 34 weeks pregnant at the age of 32. Three years later, it came back and I was told it was no longer going to curable.
It was, as you can imagine, the hardest, most terrifying thing we'd ever been through. My husband and I had just been approved to adopt a child and it was all taken away in an instant.
Ivy, our daughter, was just three-years-old and the idea that I was going to have to leave her was the most desperate pain I'd ever felt.
I knew I was going to do absolutely anything and everything I could to to stay with her for as long as humanly possible; I sought second opinions, I used alternative medicine alongside chemotherapy, I changed my diet and I pushed for the surgery they'd told me I couldn't have - and I finally got to NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE!!!
Thankfully I'm STILL here - five years on, bringing home the clear scans! I'm still on chemo and will continue to be for the rest of my days but it's doing the job.
And even more amazingly, we got our son! We were eventually allowed to proceed with our adoption and brought our dream boy home in 2019.
I wanted to spread my hope far and wide because I remember that feeling of utter despair when I was sent home from the hospital without an ounce of hope. I just remember thinking if I could find even a speck of hope, then I had possibilities.
I had been that rabbit in the headlights and the idea that I could be 'that success story' to people who were desperately searching was a really wonderful feeling.
One of the things I began doing was writing - I found it so therapeutic to be able to get my feelings out and I always felt so much better after I did. I started blogging and eventually writing this column for The Daily Mirror and I cannot tell you the amount of people who have taken comfort from my story. You can't beat that feeling!
Aside from cancer, we had to make money; I'd left my job working in oncology at the hospital because it was understandably, pretty tricky to be spending my days reading about cancer.
That's when the business idea Fighty Pants came up. I had tried my hand at a few creative things over the years and being given an incurable diagnosis makes you say "F*** it" much more than you used to!
So, thanks to an amazingly supportive husband, that's exactly what I did. I started making cards, prints and pins with slogans like "badass cancer kicker" and "fighty pants at wedgie level" and people loved them.
They resonated with so many people who were going through similar situations and I knew this was what I wanted to do.
This month, I'm celebrating four years of Fighty Pants. We've sent thousands of orders out over the years to all parts of the world - from Manchester to Miami to Finland to Hawaii.
It always amazes me that people from so far and wide have found Fighty Pants. The idea that people have prints up in their house or a pin badge as their lucky charm or a pill tin to make them laugh is surreal.
Reviews that make my heart beam include: "Item arrived quickly. I love it, it's on my bag for chemotherapy days. Really pleased with it and it makes me smile when I look at it."
Another lovely customer wrote: "Thanks so much for this…it's a great gift to send to loved ones who just need that reminder in the face of the dreaded C word."
We now sell on Not On The High Street, Etsy, Not Another Bunch Of Flowers and Thortful and only aim to keep growing. We've raised so much money for cancer charities in the process, including Future Dreams, Secondary Sisters, Roy Castle Lung Foundation and Little Lifts. What a feeling!
Obviously, there is a lot that comes with running a small business from your spare room - (I'm currently manifesting an amazing outdoor office) We have to be so many things to make it successful, but when you have a good day, it's always worth it.
I wouldn't change my career for anything now, I adore what I do. I love hearing back from my customers about how or why it's helped them or someone they love through a tough situation. Cancer took so much from me, but wow - it's given me so much more.
My plans for the future of Fighty Pants are to expand and sell more wholesale. I want Fighty Pants to be a recognised brand; somewhere people automatically think of when they need a gift for someone who they care about.
We're expanding our range and although cancer and illness will be what we primarily focus on, we're also introducing things for all occasions to celebrate the good, the bad and the scary.
To get in touch if there's anything in particular you think we're missing, or if you'd like to become a supplier it want me to create something for your community, you can check us out on the Fighty Pants website, Instagram page and Facebook.
Always have Hope…. And check your boobs!
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