Ocean Film Festival Tour Magazine 2022

Photos: Graeme Pace
certificate, PT was diagnosed with endometrial
cancer. Getting back in the water became her
biggest motivation for recovery after her first
operation, and once she was able to dive again,
she completed her Master Diver ticket. But in
2014 she learnt that the cancer was incurable,
and that any further treatment would only buy
her time. It would be easy to crumble in the face
of this diagnosis, but PT took the opposite track.
“When I was diagnosed with incurable cancer,
I came to understand that I’d already processed
my mortality and that life is finite for everybody,”
she says.
“Somebody told me that the time we spend
underwater isn’t held against the time we have
remaining on land, so I really took that to heart,
and decided to spend every possible moment
that I could beneath the surface of the water.”
PT received palliative radiation to reduce
the size of her tumour, and gave up her job as
a teacher. She now dives three to five times
a week and has done training in Underwater
Photography, Wreck Diving, Nitrox and Rescue.
PT calls her adventures ‘scuba vs tumour’
and documents them through her blog and
on Facebook. She is equally likely to describe
herself as having OCD – Obsessive Compulsive
Diving – as having cancer. Join her adventures
at www.pinktankscuba.com, or by following Pink
Tank Scuba on Facebook.
we believe the closer we are to nature
the more likely we are to care for it
underwear and tees made from trees
sueme.com • @wearesueme
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Photography: Martin Hartley | Locations & Production: Good Spaces
16 UK & IRELAND OCEAN FILM FESTIVAL TOUR