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May 11, 2015Heather’s blog: What to expect before your first Conference
My original mission, when I signed up for the conference in Ottawa in 2011, was to find other cervical cancer survivors. I wanted to connect with them, and hopefully grasp a better understanding of my own treatments and the effects I was dealing with afterwards as a result.
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March 31, 2015Heather's blog: 2015 isn't about letting go; it's about taking risks
Last year was a year of growth for me. So far, 2015 is starting out to be a year of letting go and making big changes. In one version of the presentations I give at schools (I am constantly rewriting, revamping, and rediscovering), I encourage students to not be afraid to change the things that make them unhappy. I am now trying to put into practice what I preach.
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February 17, 2015YACCtivist Heather accepts a hard truth
What if I could have another baby? What if there is the perfect child out there for me that on some higher level whom I am meant to adopt. What if? I have been so afraid of giving up, so I felt I needed to put in every effort possible to try and see where these options could lead me.
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January 01, 2015
It's nice to meet you, 2015!
We’re easing back in to it here at YACC HQ, but we still wanted to come by to say hello, share Heather’s quote, and tell you what you can expect from us in the next weeks and months.
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December 09, 2014
Heather's blog: Right here, right now
“There is nothing I can add to my life right now that would make me any happier.”
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October 28, 2014
Heather's blog: Expectations
For a long time now, I have been holding back making the changes I need or desire in certain areas of my life because of expectations — listening too closely to others, and not being honest about my own… This burden of expectation has been a heavy one for me, and one that I felt the weight of with each step I took up Gros Morne.
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September 16, 2014
Heather's blog: Moving on from cancer
Fourteen years ago I moved to Scotland, and I climbed a mountain. When I got to the top of that mountain, I threw my arms in the air and yelled, “Alba gu brath!” (Scotland Forever). That climb came after a very difficult period of my life, and it was so much more than a 19 year old girl climbing a mountain as part of the backpacker’s tour she was on.
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August 19, 2014
Heather's blog: Relationships, legacy, and living the life you love
At the Survivor Conference this year, we spoke about legacy, and what it meant to us. A number of us mentioned that is not what we want to leave behind, but rather what we are putting out into the world while we are still here living. I remember this every time I am trying to navigate any of my relationships, new and old.
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July 29, 2014
A full Texas 4000 recap
Each year, students from the University of Texas embark on a 70-day, 4000 mile bike tour from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska called Texas 4000. The riders aim to spread hope, knowledge and charity along their routes in addition to raising $500,000 to support cancer charities across the United States and Canada, and this year, they chose YACC as one of the beneficiaries.
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July 22, 2014
Heather's Blog: Sometimes the unexpected path leads where you're supposed to be
Grade 12, graduation, and my eighteenth birthday came with me involved in a highly abusive relationship, broken, lost, and a shadow of that ambitious girl I had been just a few short years before. I had no idea who I was anymore, who I could be, and where I was headed next. What I did know was that I couldn’t live like this much longer, and I needed to make a change.
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June 24, 2014
Heather's blog: Creating the life I want & setting daily intentions
“When you become clear on how you want to feel, it makes it easier to create the life you truly want to live.”
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May 27, 2014
Heather's blog: No children, no choice
I’m realizing that even when you are given the definite answer that you will never have children, there is an unrelenting sense of loss and grief over what cancer has taken from you, and the path you will now never get to explore. The best part is, with the voices and stories I have heard in the past month from my fellow YACCers, I know that I am not alone, and you all have my back!
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