Hello, my friend, and welcome to Cancer Can Give! in this special series of the Simplify Cancer Podcast, we share inspirational stories of people who went on a grueling journey through cancer and yet, they found their own way to live, grow and give in a way that helps others. Today, it is my absolute pleasure to be talking to Heather Hawkins, ovarian cancer survivor, she is a health advocate, the most adventurous spirit I know, a beautiful person doing good out in the world that advocated for health, for hope, and living beyond your comfort zone! In this conversation, we talk about hope, choosing adventurous life after cancer and making a positive difference out in the world.

Links

Heather Hawkins: Adventurous Spirit on Facebook

Heather Hawkins: Adventurous Spirit on Instagram

Adventurous Spirit by Heather Hawkins on Audible

Adventurous Spirit by Heather Hawkins on Amazon

Video

Full Transcript

Heather, I have a bit of a thing for a first sentence in the book. In your book, the first sentence is: Sometimes our paths in life take us in completely unexpected directions. It's certainly true, right?

It is.

For yourself as well, and I think when cancer makes an entrance into your life, and for you Heather, a decade ago, your life really took this really unexpected turn, right? Tell us how did all of that play out?

Yes, my goodness, it was 2006, December 2006. I was a busy working mom, I had a 14-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, and life just is so full of school after school activities, dropping kids off, working hard at the office. I did start to notice this fatigue creeping in and then also a little bit of abdominal bloating, and I was 41 at that stage. I remember thinking, this is probably either menopause creeping in, or I'm overdoing things. Or maybe it's middle age has spread that I need to get a little bit more fit, a bit more active. Then throughout that Christmas time of December 2006, and then going into 2007, there was some more symptoms that then started to occur.

I was off to the toilet more often than not with frequency with urination. I'd eat small amounts and start to feel really full quickly. My abdominal bloating just continued to grow. It also continued -- for every woman at that particular time of month, you do get bloating, tiredness, but when it persisted between periods, that's when that intuition kicks in. You think, this is not right. This is not normally how my body operates. I thought, I need to go and have a chat with my GP. I'm so glad we have a great relationship with our GP, that I could feel confident to go and talk with him.

I didn't feel embarrassed. I knew that he would take me seriously just talking about a raft of very general symptoms. Then he would take me seriously and also seek to find answers and have that investigated. That was really the beginning of my fear that this massive shift in my life going from a completely normal world, to suddenly hearing those two words in the same sentence as my name those two words of ovarian cancer.

So many interesting things you said that I want to pick up on, you talked about watching out and listening to your body, things that you knew what not right, and you picked up on those patterns. Then it is about having that courage to speak to your treating doctor, and to bring those things up and to get those things looked into. It's so vital, isn't it?

It certainly is and it's about understanding that this is not how my body normally operates and to sit down with your doctor and to go through all those things that you're concerned about. I found it really helpful. I wrote out a list so I could go in there. You're so emotional at that time. If you can refer back to your list, you're not missing out on things that perhaps are going to be really important with helpful with your diagnosis. Talking that through, he said, “Yes, that does sound serious,