How do you manage stress? Advice from someone who occasionally ignores her own advice. I am very prone to stress, which, if I don’t manage it well, can affect me quite deeply. Throughout my life, however, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to practise: serious illness, marriage breakdown, financial difficulties, and parenting neurodivergent children in environments… Read more: Twelve Ways to Cope (And One I Keep Avoiding) 

What’s the best online course you’ve ever taken? The Art of Influence by Evy Poumpouras on BBC Maestro. Without hesitation. I took this course while having chemotherapy, when I was feeling considerably less powerful than I would have liked. Watching this formidable former Secret Service agent talk about confidence, strength and understanding human behaviour was… Read more: The Secret Service Agent Who Helped Me Find My Backbone During Cancer Treatment

Which celebrity would you love to meet, and what would you talk about? Sadhguru. I don’t know if he counts as a celebrity, but I’ve never been particularly interested in stereotypical celebrities anyway. He just has that sort of presence that makes me want to give him a massive hug. And honestly, that would do.… Read more: A Hug Would Do

What does it mean to be a good person? We tend to measure goodness by actions. The more good someone does, and the less harm they cause, the better a person they must be. In children’s stories, it is simple. There is a hero and a villain, and we know exactly whom to cheer for.… Read more: The Good, the Bad and the Rest of Us

Exercise Your Life When I first saw the prompt, “What are five simple exercises to do at home?”, my first thought was the obvious one: list five exercises for the body. Squats, stretches, sit-ups, perhaps a plank…not my area at all. I am a social worker and cancer survivor, not a gym instructor…I almost scrolled… Read more: Five ‘Exercises’ for Your Life

Do you think everything happens for a reason? I believe that our lives have purpose and meaning. To believe that we simply exist by chance—that we are merely the result of random events, arbitrary decisions, and a universe without direction or intention—has never aligned with the countless small miracles I see around me whenever I… Read more: Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

Sam Ryder as Jesus. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect piece of casting. He barely needs a costume before you start believing it. I left my tendency towards teenage-style fandom behind many years ago, but when I saw the poster in London, I immediately knew: I have to see this. Not only because of… Read more: Jesus, What a Night!

Dagenham isn’t one of those places anyone dreams about visiting. It’s not somewhere people say, “You simply have to go there at least once.” If anything, it belongs to that other category of places—the ones people apologise for before you even arrive. “We won’t stay long… but it’ll do for now.” That’s how the women… Read more: A Dagenham Feeling

And today, I cried.I didn’t expect it. I hadn’t planned it. I didn’t even feel it building.It just… happened.People say, “Your cup gets full.” But I don’t think I have just one cup.I feel like I’m juggling dozens of them. I spend so much energy watching the obvious ones, carefully making sure they never overflow,… Read more: When Your Cup is Full

When I think back to this part of the journey, the very first memory that pops into my head is a late-night visit to the out-of-hours GP.The doctor asked me, “So… did everything go smoothly after the surgery?”Without thinking, I replied, “Yes… apart from…”What followed was such a ridiculously long list of events that the… Read more: Breast Cancer Surgery (Part 4) – Home

I can’t remember whether they called my name or if I simply woke up on my own, but I do remember the very first thing I said. “I’m alive! I survived! I survived?” The male recovery nurse nodded reassuringly. I repeated myself in more or less the same words, several times. They’re probably used to… Read more: Breast cancer surgery (part 3)- Immediately after surgery

I got a tattoo. Now, where I live, that probably isn’t newsworthy. In my own life, however, it deserves a headline right up there with Breast Cancer and Becoming a Social Worker.Mainly because, in my family, tattoos are completely uncharted territory. Even the family black sheep never ventured this far. (Cultural issue I suppose?) I’m… Read more: How I Chose to have ‘The Tattoo’

Do you remember your favorite book from childhood? The Antikvárium.hu watermark at the bottom of the image is a pretty good indication of just how far back I had to dig into my memory to find Nyasszu and Tavi’s adventures. And while I was at it, I discovered something else: the book was actually written… Read more: Nyasszu, Childhood Trauma, and the Softening of Generations

What quality do you value most in a friend? I value many different qualities in people. What I love most is how differently wonderful people can be. Of course, they can be differently awful too—but that is a story for another day. I am drawn to the beauty in the personalities of the people I… Read more: Why Is Loyalty the Most Important Quality in a Friend?

What jobs have you had? When people ask what jobs I’ve had, I never know where to begin. Technically, these were only my summer jobs. Unofficially, they were an education in human nature, tax evasion, counterfeit goods, workplace paranoia, and the curious ways adults justify exploiting teenagers. I grew up by Lake Balaton, Hungary’s favourite… Read more: My Teenage Career at Lake Balaton: Child Labour, Counterfeit Jewellery and Other Summer Adventures

One radiotherapy session left. Luckily, there was no nasty surprise. Everything unfolded exactly the way they predicted—if anything, probably on the most favourable end of what they expected. Only in the last few days did I start noticing some redness, almost like mild sunburn. To be fair, I’d been diligently covering myself in Aveeno and… Read more: Radioliday- The Home Stretch

Have you ever broken a bone? Almost. From the very beginning of school, I envied the kids who showed up with a cast. They’d walk into class carrying heroic stories about bikes, trees, roller skates, bunkbeds, football matches gone wrong. Usually after spending a glorious few days at home recovering. They wore bright white plaster… Read more: The Day I Prayed for a Broken Bone

What’s the oldest things you’re wearing today? My smile. “A smile remains the most inexpensive gift I can bestow on anyone.” — Og Mandino So I’ll keep smiling, whatever happens. Not as fake positivity. Just because a smile costs me nothing, and it might make someone’s day a little lighter. 💖

Halfway through. Or maybe already past it. The child swap has happened too. I handed over an exhausted Amina and received an enthusiastic, energetic Zaki in return. The only problem is that my own battery isn’t just empty anymore — it’s running on fumes, loaded with radiation, worn down by everything that came before it,… Read more: Radioliday- halfway update

Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life. There are people who shape the very foundation of who we become — our families, the environments we grow up in, the people closest to us in our early years. They become woven into us almost instinctively, and our deepest emotions are… Read more: Everyday Heroes

What does freedom mean to you? I think freedom is, in many ways, the perception of your choices. How free you feel often depends on how much you believe you are able to make the decisions you truly want for yourself. To me, freedom is ultimately a deeply subjective experience. I remember that years ago,… Read more: The Subjective Nature of Freedom

The surgery was scheduled for early morning. That sounded wonderful, considering I hadn’t been allowed to eat since the previous evening. I assumed that if my letter said to arrive at 8:30, they would probably wheel me in around 9. Brilliant. No time to overthink anything. As you can probably guess by now, that was… Read more: Breast Cancer Surgery (Part 2)- On the Day of the Operation

What is your career plan I feel very fortunate to have a career where I can genuinely see, understand, and feel that my work has meaning and value. That sense of purpose has always been important to me. At the same time, cancer taught me that my wellbeing cannot come second to achievement. One of… Read more: Career Plan After Breast Cancer

Four days into radiotherapy and I’ve already become so used to it that tomorrow, when I don’t have treatment, I might actually miss it a little. The people at the Marsden are genuinely lovely, and very obviously know what they’re doing. The ones operating the radiation machines are called radiographers, right? I’m terrible at the… Read more: Radioliday Update

7 a.m. flight.The insomniac’s favorite kind—because at that point, there’s really no reason to even go to bed. But I had to be at the hospital by 11, so there wasn’t much choice. Chelsea, baby, here we come. In the end, I decided not to do this alone. After last year’s spectacular disappointment—when “holiday” turned… Read more: Radioliday

4 a.m. I woke up at four in the morning. It felt strange—like I had just escaped a nightmare. My heart was racing, I was hyperventilating, completely drenched in sweat… but I couldn’t remember the dream. Which was unusual. Nightmares, as luck would have it, I usually remember in full detail. Anyway. I’ve never been… Read more: How to Diagnose Yourself at 4am

Have you ever been camping? The first time I ever went “camping” happened sometime in the mid-90s. I must have been around ten or eleven, and it was a hot summer at Lake Balaton. I was spending the long school holidays at my grandparents’, and right next door lived my best friend. This was before… Read more: Terror in the tent

If the fight against breast cancer were a sport, I think—despite the word “fight”—it wouldn’t resemble boxing at all. It would be much closer to a pentathlon. Boxing, and similar combat sports, rely largely on a specific kind of physical strength, along with technique and speed. A pentathlon, on the other hand, demands that competitors… Read more: About breast cancer surgery (part one) -Pentathlon to the Power of Ten

When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out? The last time I took a risk, I lost something precious. Yet I gained something far more valuable—my own respect for choosing what felt right. To me, a decision isn’t only about the outcome. It’s about defining your own journey and… Read more: Beyond the outcome-reflection

When I finished Epirubicin, everyone seemed very happy about it. Lots of “well done” and “you got through the hard part.”This is usually the exact moment when I start getting suspicious that something’s not quite right. Not that the world is out to trick me, and I never really warmed up to a paranoia diagnosis,… Read more: About Chemotherapy (Part 4) – Paclitaxel, the Sneaky One

Epirubicin (EC) The infamous “red devil” was the main character in my first four chemo cycles. As I’ve already mentioned, it stands out with its horrifying nature even within the already unpopular chemo lineup. For me, the pre-medication phase with EC was completely uneventful and free of discomfort—although, to be fair, I was suffering so… Read more: About Chemotherapy (part3)- Facing the devil

Before the Chemotherapy Session Before starting chemotherapy, blood was taken every time to check whether the body and immune system were strong enough for the treatment and free of infection. Depending on the type of chemo, this was done either a few days before or even half an hour to an hour before the treatment.… Read more: About chemotherapy (part 2)-Preparation, Cold Cap, Neuropathy Prevention

What I see is that most people who are diagnosed with cancer consider chemotherapy to be one of the most frightening treatments. That’s not without reason—after all, it’s a toxin that affects not only a person’s general wellbeing, but also drastically reduces resistance to infections, leads to visible physical changes, and can have long-term consequences.… Read more: About Chemotherapy (Part 1): Fear, Decisions & My Port Experience

If you ask cancer survivors what the worst part of their story was, many will say the moment of diagnosis. For me, it was much more the eight weeks that followed — a stretch I wouldn’t relive even in my worst nightmares. If we compare cancer to a roller coaster — and so far I… Read more: Welcome to the Cancer Ghost Ride

It was early July 2025. I was eagerly awaiting the holiday in Hungary I had booked with the children. I had been dieting since February so that I could stroll along the beach at Lake Balaton with a peaceful heart, and by then I had achieved quite beautiful results. I admired myself in the mirror… Read more: Diagnosis: Inadequate, Even in the Face of Cancer