I never used to be fearless.
I let fear shape a large part of my life.
Fear of not being liked.
Fear of not being enough.
Fear of not doing things right or well.
Fear of failure.
In 2005 at the age of 45, I was enjoying my career, a wife, a mother to two daughters then aged 21 & 20, and a son aged 17 - I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
I had a breast removed and reconstructed, my ovaries removed, suffered a ruptured bowel emergency surgery, chemotherapy, and was advised I would be on medication for 5 years.
That's when I learned to "Feel the fear and do it anyway." Life as I knew it could be taken away at any moment.
I learned to ride motorbikes, I travelled to some amazing places around the world. I embraced challenges, and pushed myself.
Life was good and I wasn't fearful of failure or being liked or being enough.
In 2017, 6 weeks after becoming a grandmother for the first time and a second grandchild due two months later, I was diagnosed with Advanced Breast Cancer.
Incurable, but treatable. Statistics were 2-5 years.
Was I still Fearless?
No! I feared dying, I feared the unknown. I feared that I wasn't going to be around to see my grandchildren grow up.
But again, I allowed the fear to come and I faced it.
I am still here!
I am not dying; I am fearlessly living.
I am so grateful and blessed with unconditional love from my whānau.
I love supporting and sharing my knowledge and journey with others. Life isn't meant to be an easy ride and we can't control a lot of it.
But we can control how we choose to deal with situations and I choose to be Fearless.
I AM FEARLESS.
Blog written by: Sue
The #IAMFEARLESS campaign was run by Studio81 as a way to encourage women from all walks of life to kickstart, inspire, and/or motivate any upcoming goals they had, to share a part of their life's journey, and to impart any wisdoms learned along the way.