To a woman like me
A message from
Ada Burrone
to oprated women

Dear friend,

like you, I am one of the hundred thousand women affected by cancer in Italy every year.
The difference between us is that you are going through this experience now, whereas I went through it in 1970 when I was 36.
I am writing to let you know about something significant in this experience that we have in common. I don't know your name or your diagnosis, but there is no need for clinical details for what I have to say. If I had not lost a breast, things would certainly have been easier.
Instead I had to learn the hard way to accept myself.
Then, on my own, I started my journey towards life, with fear as my companion: fear of the disease and fear of my own life, which I felt had changed.
I just want to tell you that I have felt your same fear, your same sense of worry, impotence and rebellion, until finally, after many tears shed and held back, I understood that yes, I could die but I could also live! In fact I personally dicovered that you can live even with a very serious prognosis.
During my journey I have found both good and bad within myself. From this effort I got the courage to look fear in the face and control the enemy that shadowed me like a ghost.
I succeeded by reinventing my life and living its moments: I remember watching the sunrise and sunset each day as though it were the last time, but also the first.
I got strength from the richness of nature and by having new and wonderful experiences.
This helped me accept the idea of the disease and the idea of dying. I realised that acceptance is not resignation but the joy of living that kept at bay my concern for an unknown tomorrow. I found new strength and peace in how I felt as a woman, and my mind had less and less space for negative thoughts.
Since then I have lived on my own terms; at the risk of not being understood, I have lived my own authentic life.
Today I know that a person's attitude is a major contributor to the success of treatment. I have heard this and seen it demonstrated by thousands of women who, like me or better than me, have decided to improve their lives after this testing experience.
I have described the essence of my experience to encourage you to take a life journey away from the idea of the disease, in the company of your best friend, yourself, and discover that the mind is an endless source of vital energy.

With love
Ada Burrone