Dr. Julie Smith

And I just happened to be reading through the chapter on when fear shows up. Isn't life funny? Oh my goodness. And I kind of, I read it and I thought, this just isn't, the kind of words I need to hear right now. It was very gentle and a lot of people like that approach, but I just thought I need something much stronger here. So I hit delete and I sat there and then rewrote the whole thing.

It was very much a shift in language. When something like that happens and life throws you a massive curveball like that, so you're faced with the prospects of your own mortality, The fear is just catastrophic, right? I was like a rabbit in headlights. That's what I felt like, that I was just stunned. Because you don't find out everything at once either.

It was very much a shift in language. When something like that happens and life throws you a massive curveball like that, so you're faced with the prospects of your own mortality, The fear is just catastrophic, right? I was like a rabbit in headlights. That's what I felt like, that I was just stunned. Because you don't find out everything at once either.

It was very much a shift in language. When something like that happens and life throws you a massive curveball like that, so you're faced with the prospects of your own mortality, The fear is just catastrophic, right? I was like a rabbit in headlights. That's what I felt like, that I was just stunned. Because you don't find out everything at once either.

You don't sort of find out and then find out what the treatment plan is and what the prospects are. You find out in bits and pieces. So there was so much uncertainty and I did not want to feel like the prey. I didn't want to feel like I was trying to work out which way to go. And so I kind of used the power of that language to write myself. Each chapter begins with a letter from me.

You don't sort of find out and then find out what the treatment plan is and what the prospects are. You find out in bits and pieces. So there was so much uncertainty and I did not want to feel like the prey. I didn't want to feel like I was trying to work out which way to go. And so I kind of used the power of that language to write myself. Each chapter begins with a letter from me.

You don't sort of find out and then find out what the treatment plan is and what the prospects are. You find out in bits and pieces. So there was so much uncertainty and I did not want to feel like the prey. I didn't want to feel like I was trying to work out which way to go. And so I kind of used the power of that language to write myself. Each chapter begins with a letter from me.

So I wrote this letter to myself. And it's very much a sense of you cannot control the fact that fear is here, right? but it can help you to move through this thing. It's now your responsibility to cultivate that courage to move through and out the other side. And there was lots of language around becoming the predator instead of the prey.

So I wrote this letter to myself. And it's very much a sense of you cannot control the fact that fear is here, right? but it can help you to move through this thing. It's now your responsibility to cultivate that courage to move through and out the other side. And there was lots of language around becoming the predator instead of the prey.

So I wrote this letter to myself. And it's very much a sense of you cannot control the fact that fear is here, right? but it can help you to move through this thing. It's now your responsibility to cultivate that courage to move through and out the other side. And there was lots of language around becoming the predator instead of the prey.

And there's this fundamental difference between those two, right? So that prey is darting around, just avoiding threats and pitfalls and trying to survive it. Whereas a predator has a goal, has something in its sights and it's on the front foot and uses all that drive and that action to make something happen. And so I thought, right, yeah, this cancer isn't coming after me. I'm coming after it.

And there's this fundamental difference between those two, right? So that prey is darting around, just avoiding threats and pitfalls and trying to survive it. Whereas a predator has a goal, has something in its sights and it's on the front foot and uses all that drive and that action to make something happen. And so I thought, right, yeah, this cancer isn't coming after me. I'm coming after it.

And there's this fundamental difference between those two, right? So that prey is darting around, just avoiding threats and pitfalls and trying to survive it. Whereas a predator has a goal, has something in its sights and it's on the front foot and uses all that drive and that action to make something happen. And so I thought, right, yeah, this cancer isn't coming after me. I'm coming after it.

You better watch out. And I felt fundamentally the situation was the same. but I felt fundamentally different in terms of how I was dealing with that. I wanted to be on the front foot and I wanted to be active.

You better watch out. And I felt fundamentally the situation was the same. but I felt fundamentally different in terms of how I was dealing with that. I wanted to be on the front foot and I wanted to be active.

You better watch out. And I felt fundamentally the situation was the same. but I felt fundamentally different in terms of how I was dealing with that. I wanted to be on the front foot and I wanted to be active.

And actually the quote at the beginning of the book, it was never going to be in the book, but I had to put it in the end because it was so fundamental to my experience was, get busy with life's purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue. If you care for yourself at all and do it while you can.

And actually the quote at the beginning of the book, it was never going to be in the book, but I had to put it in the end because it was so fundamental to my experience was, get busy with life's purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue. If you care for yourself at all and do it while you can.

And actually the quote at the beginning of the book, it was never going to be in the book, but I had to put it in the end because it was so fundamental to my experience was, get busy with life's purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue. If you care for yourself at all and do it while you can.

And it kind of makes me emotional just even saying it there because it takes me back to that moment of I had it on a post-it note that was on my desk. And every time I read it, I felt that drive, that kind of fire in my belly to do something that was active in my own rescue. So...