Very excited to have received a bursary place to attend this year’s Young Survival Coalition conference in Orlando, Florida.  I know how much last year’s conference helped me come to terms with my diagnosis.  The workshops were well planned.  The plenary sessions informative.  Most of all was simply the camaraderie between attendees and knowing you’re not alone.

I’m also super excited to be able to meet up with some of my Phyllodes friends.  Some were in Atlanta but more that I know online from the support group and particularly, Andi.  Andi is someone I’ve mentioned before who was pivotal in my managing my diagnosis.  Sadly Jolene is no longer with us ‘physically’ but we have a plan!

I need to remember that attending the conference is for me.  Me personally.  About me.  I know I will be tempted to be looking at it as opportunities for the UK conference for Living Beyond Diagnosis and I’m sure there will be lots of ideas but sometimes I need to put my own health and mental health first.

I’m grateful for the long flight today.  I can sleep.  I worked through the night before leaving the UK to get everything up to date and ahead of myself so that I could put an ‘out of office’ message on and leave.

Once again Jenny is coming to the conference and will be sharing my room at the Park Plaza.  Always great to catch up and particularly at the conference when it’s so easy to share concerns and worries with someone you’ve known for 20 years but who ‘understands’.