Anna Remijn Derham

Go Home and Grow Tomatoes: How I Survived Breast Cancer Anna Remijn Derham

In December 2004, the doctor told me that my tumour was an invasive ductal carcinoma that needed to be removed through a lumpectomy and radiotherapy or a mastectomy procedure. I could choose. After my mastectomy, my oncologist prescribed an aggressive chemotherapy treatment to increase the odds that this aggressive ductal carcinoma cancer would not return. His decision was founded on probability, based on statistics that indicated cancer could possibly return if I didn't do anything differently. My oncologist told me that administering prescribed chemotherapy treatment would increase my survival rate from 50 percent to 60 percent if chemotherapy were to be administered within six weeks of my mastectomy. Chemotherapy treatment filled me with fear. I chose to learn. From my greatest fear came my greatest discovery and my greatest success. I have learned that I have the resources within me to choose the quality of my life along the way. I have learned to hunt those embedded limiting beliefs that have moulded me. I have learned that I can choose to change my beliefs, to change my attitude, to choose my state, to change the stresses in my life. I have learned that I can choose to change my mind to change the energy in my body to feel better and better every day. I choose. I have been clear of cancer for eight years. As a recently qualified life coach practitioner and an NLP practitioner, I am still learning. I practice what I learn through guiding others to realise their potential. My goal is to propel them forward, guiding them to use their imagination, to go back along their timeline and discover their defining moments. I urge them to uncover their embedded beliefs and know that they can change those beliefs anytime. Thus, they can change their bodies through changing their minds.