A Letter To You

A letter to you,

Life comes in waves, with ups and downs.

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I have had the joy of riding many highs, and I have shared these with you through social media and the many many shows worldwide throughout the many years of my career.

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But now a new wave hit me. Not a good one. I have breast cancer. It was diagnosed a little over 2 weeks ago and I will have surgery tomorrow to remove the tumor. My prognosis is very good!!! It seems to be a non-aggressive cancer, which seems to not have spread. I will keep my breast. And I will be cancer free after this surgery, plus a local radiation treatment that will take place three months after this surgery, hopefully. We will know more after the surgery to see if this positive prognosis stands.

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The word cancer is a shocker. All that you found important in life before this diagnosis changes radically within minutes. Now I just want to be healthy again. I want to see my daughter grow into a woman; I want to live! And the scariest part of this diagnosis is that I thought I was healthy! I didn’t feel the cancer, I didn’t know it was there until I, as a 40+ woman, went to a standard mammogram checkup. Something many countries offer, for free even for the lucky ones.

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Had I not gone there, the tumor would have gone undetected. In a year from now this could have grown much bigger. The thought of that makes me share this story with you. A mammogram is lifesaving! It’s uncomfortable and you might think that you won’t have something in your breasts anyway but GO! And for the men reading this: remind your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister to go and get checked. Even without the luxury I as a western woman experience with free mammogram checkups: GO! Luckily, there are many organizations that offer information about self-detection if you do not have access or funds for a mammogram.

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If I might inspire you to take good care of yourself, then something good will come out of this cancer diagnosis.

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If all goes as planned, I will be up and running in time for the European tour with Nightwish, that will start on the 20th of November! And I am optimistic since my prognosis is good! I promise to take good care of myself.

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I will be off the grid for a while to focus on myself.

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Thank you for reading this letter.

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