CONNECTIONS

By Jennifer McDonald (Class of 1978)
I guess you could say I come from a family of writers. My dad, Keith McDonald, started his career
as a finance journalist and my sister Margie (Class of 1975) is a sports writer for The Australian.
Mary Anne (Class of 1973), the eldest of we Somerville-schooled McDonald girls, and I both married
journalists and our younger sister, Janet (Class of 1983) is the author of several academic works.
Writing is writ large in our family, so to
speak. I’ve have made a career out of
it as a public relations practitioner for
almost 30 years, but never in my wildest
dreams did I think writing would actually
save my life.
On Tuesday 17 December 2013, I was
diagnosed with an infiltrating lobular
carcinoma in my left breast. Up until
that moment I’d thought I was pretty
in-tune with my body, but this was a
bolt from the blue. There’s no breast
cancer in my family and, as mentioned
previously, I have three sisters, two
older and one younger, none of whom
have been diagnosed with anything
more than an easily dispatched
colorectal polyp. This prompted my
son, 13 at the time, to ask Aunty Mary
Anne, who looked after him while I was
in surgery, “Why did it have to be my
mum?” Why indeed.
In a bid to make sense of what was
happening to me, I started writing a
series of blog posts entitled ‘My Big
Breast Adventure’, while undergoing
(if you’ll pardon the expression) the
‘pointy-end’ of treatment throughout
2014 and 2015.
There were 32 posts during this time
and while I didn’t set out to deliberately
shock, some of the headlines were a
bit provocative, including Cut, Poison,
Burn and Laugh, Dying and Other
Inconveniences and What the FEC?
The latter in honour of the acronym
given to the chemo cocktail many
breast cancer sufferers are forced to
endure. It stands for Fluorouracil (also
known in oncology circles as 5FU –
yes, you heard right), Epirubicin and
Cyclophosphamide – FEC for short.
Who knew oncologists had a sense
of humour?
I confess, my reasons for blogging
while going through treatment were
purely selfish. I was trying to rationalise
the tremendous shock of becoming
a cancer patient, while finding a way
to keep my tribe informed about my
progress. I literally didn’t have the energy
to return all the wonderful phone calls,
texts and emails I received at the time.
At first my posts attracted the kinds
of comments one might expect –
messages of love and support in the
main. But as I progressed, people
started relating my musings on
this ‘adventure’ to things they were
going through in their own lives –
an acrimonious divorce, the death
of a parent, a crisis at work.
While the blogs were a fantastic form
of personal therapy, the comments
and reactions from readers provided
the greatest healing of all.
And now the whole shebang is available
as a book entitled My Big Breast
Adventure or How I Found the Dalai
Lama in My Letterbox. I, for one,
hope that many more people might
be helped by hearing my story.
The book was launched in Brisbane
at the Avid Reader in November 2016,
an event attended by a whole troupe
of Somerville House Old Girls, to my
great delight.
If you would like your very own
signed copy plus free shipping,
please visit my publisher’s website
www.forpitysake.com.au and enter
the coupon code SOMERVILLE at
the checkout.
Breast regards,
Jennifer McDonald
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SOMERVILLE HOUSE CONNECTIONS
VOL. 14 NO. 2 | 2016
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