Elen

Elen is now 46 years old. She has a husband and a daughter born in 2006. Today, Elen’s life is like others. But 18 years ago what she has faced is not common. When Elen was 27, in 1997, march, she suffered for tachycardia, cough, fever and stinging. The doctors said they were allergies, seasonal diseases, minor infections. And so, they decided to give her Valium, for calm her down. “They said me to stay calm, but I didn’t believe them, I felt that there was something wrong”.

On March, the tenth, after another malaise, Elen was admitted in hospital, where she was subjected to a medical deep exam. The outcome was one for what her world has fallen apart: Non-Hodgkin Limphoma. “I was not thinking about it and I wouldn’t believe it. I was engaged for 2 years with Andrea, I had a job, friends”. All ended? No, a new start, rather. At the beginning, full of pitfalls, difficulties, fears, realities faced up and overcome tanks to those closest to her. “I soon began the therapy and after the first cycle we realized that it was in regression. I never thought the worst. I naively lived my illness, and this has been lucky: I always thought that illness had to run its own course, from which I would have gone out. A lightness encouraged by my family, too, and by my friends: it’s fundamental to have closest persons in those times, because they can support and distract you”.

There have been depressing moments, but Elen never thought to raise the white flag. “Sometimes, I had trouble watching my future. Other times, I cried and I grieved. But, shedding some tears must be only an outlet. It’s important to be optimist, otherwise is far worse: you have to do it for yourself and for the closest”.

Elen went away on her annual holiday on august. When she came back, radiotherapy, a new control, and the confirmation that the cancer was completely gone. Her life went on as a normal woman. The marriage with Andrea, the job, the family, into the which, Matilde, born in 2006, has a predominant position.