About The Cancerkit

Where it Began

It started in July 2023.

I had been home visiting my family – reconnecting, laughing, feeling grounded. The day before I was due to fly back, I stepped into the shower and everything changed. I found a lump in my breast. Panic set in. It’s probably nothing, I told myself. But what if it’s something?

Three days later – three of the longest, most surreal days of my life – I got the call from the hospital. We need you to come in. I knew.

As many of you reading this will understand, it’s impossible to explain what goes through your mind in that moment. Your life doesn’t just change – in a matter of seconds, it shatters.

I was diagnosed with stage II triple-negative breast cancer. An aggressive form. I was 35 years old, living a healthy lifestyle, and working as a lawyer. Nothing could have prepared me for how quickly life would shift from certainty to chaos.

And so began a chapter of my life I never wanted to write...

The Road Through Treatment

Treatment was brutal.

Over the course of almost two years, I endured six months of chemotherapy, several surgeries, a month of daily radiation, and twelve months of immunotherapy. Each stage brought its own battle — physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Chemotherapy wore me down in every possible way. Around the eighth cycle, I had a severe allergic reaction to one of the chemotherapy drugs. By the ninth cycle, things got even worse. Another reaction – this time life-threatening. My body began to shut down and I became completely unresponsive. I started convulsing, I turned grey, and everything blurred except one terrifying thought:

This is how I die.

I made it through, but it changed me. It left a permanent mark on how I saw my life – and my future.

The Spark for Something New

After my diagnosis, I spent weeks – months – trying to make sense of my new reality. I researched constantly: cancer, symptoms, side effects, decoding medical language, how to prepare for the next round of treatment, side effects serious enough to warrant medical intervention, safe foods, clean products etc. Everything changed – even the most basic routines.

But beyond the physical toll were also the invisible battles. "Chemo brain", being one of them, made it difficult to think clearly, stay organised, or even remember simple things. After appointments, I’d come home exhausted, trying to recall what had been said. Had I asked the right questions? Did I write down all the important details? Where was that note? Managing treatment schedules, medications, symptoms – along with everything else – became overwhelming, especially at a time when I had the least capacity to manage them.

I needed structure. I needed clarity. I needed something that understood what I was going through.

That’s when the idea for The Cancerkit was born.

But This Is Just The Beginning

The Cancerkit isn’t just a journal. It’s a space we’re building for people going through cancer – to make the practical side of this journey a little more manageable, with tools that are truly useful because they are shaped by real experience, not assumptions.

We’ll be expanding into more thoughtfully designed products: gentle, practical, and honest tools – for patients, and for friends, partners, and families who want to help, but don’t always know how.

If you’re here, chances are cancer has touched your life. This path is hard – unfair, unpredictable, and deeply personal – but you’re not walking it alone. Together, we keep going.

Everything we create through The Cancerkit is shaped by this truth.

Founder, The Cancerkit