Sarah achieves birthday walking wish thanks to our physio team's support
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To celebrate her 50th birthday, Sarah wanted to take on a 16km trek over the Malvern Hills – just as she had done last year.
Since that 49th birthday walk, though, Sarah had suffered a collapsed vertebrae as a result of metastasis – all part of her third battle with breast cancer.
But, she completed her birthday wish – and says she wouldn’t have got close if it hadn’t been for the physio team at St Michael’s.
“I’ve been attending the physio department regularly now for months and it has been the most positive, life-affirming, genuinely enjoyable experience I could have ever hoped for,” said Sarah.
“The physio team have supported me to feel stronger, empowered me to take on this challenge without a flicker of doubt, and ensured I have been nurtured, respected and been given an opportunity to actually thrive in amongst the scans, the treatment, the tests, the medications, the pain management and the navigation of balancing self-employment and family and this rubbish diagnosis.”
Sarah says the physio team came up with a bespoke programme for her, lending their “unwavering expertise”.
“They ensured I went out there safe, with confidence and with their voices in my head telling me I was going to nail it… and I did!”
She was joined on the walk by her teenage sons and step-daughter, together with various friends, including a photographer pal who volunteered to meet the group for an impromptu photo shoot.
The walk took nine hours, but Sarah finished. And that’s all that matters.
“Yes, it hurt, yes it felt like I might have to stop on a couple of occasions but, that voice in my head – physiotherapist Steph – telling me I was going to achieve it, was all I needed.”
She admits that the start of her journey with St Michael’s was an uneasy one.
“Nothing really prepared me for a life-limiting diagnosis and nothing shouted ‘you’re going to die’ like pulling up outside a hospice for an appointment with my own name on it.”
During that first visit, she waited outside for “what seemed like an eternity”, willing her body to get out of the car.
By the third visit, she was “over it”, and so glad she persevered.
“I know now, with 100% certainty, that when the time comes and I need more intensive support, I won’t be scared, I won’t bat an eyelid at the enormity of the situation. I will be going to a familiar place that is full of kindness, of compassion, of joy and of empathy. Somewhere full of hope, light and love.
And that, right now, is the best gift I could possibly ask for.”