My Second Chance

Bladder cancer was the beginning of a new and happier life for me. It may sound strange because it was no fun then, of course. But what bladder cancer did for me was it made me reevaluate myself and my time here on this earth. Until then, I’d been a mother, a crafter, a craft author, and always just a bit short of money. One of the situations cancer threw me into at age 60 was having no money and no access to benefits. Since my husband’s income was based on my abilities, his income dropped like a stone, too. And it was never very much, but we got by and worked towards my (delayed) retirement. Then, this brought the house of cards down. We were in a real hole!

Finding my way

We had some help from empathetic friends, but some of them would even ask what we were doing to get ourselves out of the mess and suggest that we get proper jobs. I couldn’t because of the after-effects of chemo, and neither could my husband. But I had started to write. I realized I didn’t want to return to handling the chemicals in my artist's materials. Not only was it possible that they had caused the cancer...but also I was bored. We were so dreadfully short of money that I started looking at other people who had dug themselves out of holes. Along the way, I picked up the book The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer. This suggested that I’d been undervaluing myself and that I needed to ask my worth from the people who were my fans and who I’d supported in many small ways throughout my creative life.

My worth

I fundamentally changed my ideas about what I was worth. I started a Patreon page, and I started saying no when I needed to. I wrote a book about the many ways I’d found of being Frugal called ‘The Frugalist.’ From then to now, I’ve written an average of 2 books a year, including ‘Bladder Cancer Stories.’ Most of my craft books are written under my name, but The Frugalist And Bladder Cancer Stories are under Littleoldladywho, the slightly angry ‘lefty’ post-BC half of my personality. I’ve got to the stage where my books bring in a significant and increasing income, and I’ve added other digital income streams. Six years later, I’ve just reached pension age. I aim to get a pension and write books for as many years as possible. It's not too bad for a muscle-invasive and lymph node-affected diagnosis. I give up all my gratitude for the wonderful health service in Spain, where we live. Of course, I now know how vital those sometimes hard-to-pay Seguridad social payments were in ensuring service was available to all of us, even me, who had no private insurance.

Grateful

Bladder cancer has made me more rather than less political because I want everyone to have the same chance of a second life as I did. More than anything, it has made me grateful for my ability to pivot creatively and climb mountains that seemed insuperable. I’m also extremely grateful to those donors for the 5 pints of blood I needed during and after my big operation. I sometimes think one or more of them must have loved walking and drinking beer. Two things I wasn’t interested in before, but both of which I love...in my second life!