Lara Burwell

After a slight technical hitch, our wi-fi decided to cooperate and Lara Burwell honoured me with the conversation of her journey and how she began blogging and writing. Although Lara’s writing has been a positive outcome, it’s regrettable that the reason for her to start doing so was quite the opposite.

Now 14 chapters in to her blog, Lara began her blogging and writing journey after she was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer over a year ago. From diagnosis to treatment Lara used her blog as an outlet and a platform to articulate her experiences for people to read and not fee alone.

“I wanted a way to put it into something I could digest myself”

As a mother of one, Lara wanted her cancer journey and blog to be a way for her son to read about her experiences and what the family went through. Her chapter structure was motivated by Lara not wanting to miss any details about her journey and make sure her son was aware in the future.

Lara’s life before her cancer diagnosis, was a stark contrast to her life now. Constantly wanting to climb the career ladder in the nurseries she used to work in, Lara was very ambitious and was looking to start trying for her second child.

“We were living in blissful ignorance”

Lara described her situation before her diagnosis as building towards her “perfect life” and feels a resentment sometimes. Having to revaluate her outlook on situations she would’ve perhaps taken for granted. The number of hours she was able to put into her job before was a considerable amount more than it is now. Seeing life “pass her by” and changes happening all around her saw a change in her mental health and the feeling of stagnation whilst wating for her results.

“It’s gone so fast and so slowly at the same time”

Speaking about how the next set of test results could mean further treatment or the start of remission and the normalcy of what her life was before made me cement how monumental each chapter of Lara’s treatment has been. From having cameras put down her throat to dealing with numerous surgeries, Lara uses her blogging outlet as a way to process her journey. As her story continues so do the chapters of her story and blog.