Hi Rowan, I am so sorry to hear about your diagnosis. It's a bitter pill to swallow when they deliver these diagnosis to you. My father had pancreatic cancer that had spread to other organs also. He lived another 10 years before the cancer took him, despite being told to expect 12 months. But just because the doctors tells you 12 months, well, you can try hard to prove them wrong.   I've had 2 major life changing illnesses in my life by the age of 40. I was told after the first illness (age 28 yo) that I would likely never be able to work again and that I might have to go in to a nursing home.   I was mortified. I was shattered. Was this it? Was this the end of my life as I knew it? In the hospital ward there was another patient (let's call him M). He was sitting in the sun and just soaking up the sunshine and he looked so happy and satisfied in that moment, even though he was in a wheel chair and was heading off to a nursing home at the age of 40. As I learnt to walk again (not being able to walk was the least of my problems), I started to jog on a treadmill, and weeks later I started to run. Even though I'd never been a runner, I really enjoyed it. One foot in front of the other, that was all I had to be able to do, which is lucky, because that was all I could manage at the time.  In time I built my running km's up. 22km's a day, 7 days a week. Running became my center. It became where I could escape to that belonged to me when everything else was over whelming. When I turned 40 I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. 6 months of chemotherapy and a total colectomy. I was shattered.  I just couldn't believe the diagosis after what I'd been through already.   When things are hard, I think back to M sitting in the sunshine. In the face of so much hardship and uncertainty, he was still able to enjoy himself. And it all started with just sitting in the sunshine and appreciating the small things.   I'm not suggesting that you need to run 20 kms or sit in the sunshine, but I think few of the things that I learnt are. 1) Find the small things in life that you enjoy that you can still do and hold meaning.  Enjoy what you are able to, not what you can't. 2) Find hope. It's such an under rated thing, but it is so so powerful. With hope and medical achievements, you can sometimes achieve truly amazing things. Enjoy what you have but have lofty goals. 3) Do everything in your power to follow up with medical experts on treatments and possible treatments. 4) Try to maintain your fitness as much as you can. This helps in multiple ways, both medically and psychologically.   -s   ... View more

You'll hear from clinicians that you stand a fighting chance, and in your heart, you'll doubt.   You'll hear from friends, family and well wishing strangers "you got this", and you'll want to believe .. but doubt. The thing is, the absolute thing is - nobody knows, but you are STILL ALIVE. Every day that remains to you is yours to spend, and you get a chance, and you need to take it, to breathe life into the days that remain, not give them away to this insidious fucking disease. Hope. It's all about Hope. If you sustain yours, hang onto the possibility that you may yet survive and thrive ... the days that remain to you will be richer and stronger. The outcome may be something that we have to learn to accept. But frame that acceptance in Hope. I gave four years away to hopelessness, that doubt, that insidious creep.  The worry that every cough subsequent to treatment was a recurrence. Then I did that Captain Australia's BIG WALK thing (you can look at www.captainaustralia.online if youre curious).  I restored my hope.  I healed depression and existential crisis. And more than six YEARS ago now, I was given six MONTHS to live. But still here. That outcome is possible for you too. Don't give up hope.  Be strong in your mind.  If it feels like self-trickery, WHO CARES, take that optimism anyway.  You need to approach your cancer on the basis that it's a Dragon that you are perfectly capable of slaying.  It'll be tough, but you can come through, and you might even come through stronger and wiser, armed with hidden treasures found along the way... ... View more