“I like this picture because of me and the world around me. I look at the picture and do not care about my funny hair, my long arms and huge hands, my grin, my funny trousers. I see my friend taking the picture on a warmish day, I can hear her laughing and I feel safe.”
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I am Alexa. I relocated from Germany to London, my favourite city, in June 2012. In 2014 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had a mastectomy, followed by 6 cycles of chemotherapy and 3 weeks of radiotherapy, all at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, near to my new home in Chalk Farm. For at least the next 5 years I am on Tamoxifen.

My friends and family wanted me to return to Germany for treatment but I decided not to. I could not stand the thought of living in a guest room while I was ill and feeling down. I wanted to be surrounded by all the things I love, including my new life in London. For every chemo cycle one family member or friend came over to help out for a few days and after they flew back home I had help from friends and colleagues from London. They brought me cooked food, laughter and distraction. It was in this time that I realised that some colleagues turned into real friends.

From Facebook and 52 Lives I came across your Facebook page and bought one of the 101 Things-Hoodies. Please find attached 2 pictures where I wear it:

The first picture was taken by my friend Birgit. I go to see her and her family in Felixstowe, Suffolk regularly. I went there and because the weather was quite nice I wanted to see the port of Felixstowe. The best place to see it and have a good overview is from the Fort Felixstowe.
I like this picture because of me and the world around me. I look at the picture and do not care about my funny hair, my long arms and huge hands, my grin, my funny trousers. I see my friend taking the picture on a warmish day, I can hear her laughing and I feel safe (It´s maybe because of the walls surrounding the fort).

I also like to look at the other people/strangers in the picture. The girl in the right corner seems to thing “What is that crazy lady doing?”. And other visitors do not notice me at all, they just do what they were coming for, to visit the fort.
Sometimes it is such a good feeling that, although my life changed and shifted so much during the last 15 months, the world has not changed much and people keep on doing their things without knowing me or my story.

In the second one you can not see the logo well but I am getting something I always wanted to get, a tattoo. I never knew what design to get and where on my body to put it but when I was diagnosed with cancer I knew it before I started treatment. It is a “C” around my ankle, starting as a black dark letter, turning into a bird swarm.
One of the birds is red symbolising a hot spot in my pelvis, doctors found in a full body scan after my diagnosis which could be a metastasis. I always loved birds. So I hope to turn something really scary and horrible into something beautiful.

Alexa

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