When Shellie Davis of Baltimore, Maryland, learned she had ovarian cancer, she says, "I put up a shield for my family and friends because I didn't want them to worry." The diagnosis was new and she had a lot of questions and feelings to sort through. While she was still processing everything herself, she didn't want to have to address her family's and friends' fears and questions, too.
"I told them, 'If you're having a day that you're feeling sorry for me, then don't call me that day. Call me the next day. Because I only want to hear happy stories. Tell me some jokes.'"
Read MoreJournaling to Cope with Uncertainty
When Davis didn't want to go into detail about her condition with her family and friends, she turned to journaling. "I would keep a journal of all the things that were going on with me. I had questions that I didn't want to talk to my family about because they were still very anxious," she recalls.Davis used the journal to process her feelings and keep track of questions that she'd later ask her doctor. She wanted to have all the information she needed to reassure concerned family and friends, or to prepare them for what was to come.
From Coping to Encouraging
Now an ovarian cancer survivor, Davis has taken to helping other women who are going through what she did. She joined the Woman to Woman (W2W) peer support program through Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. The program pairs women who are living with gynecologic cancers with trained volunteer mentors, like Davis, who have been through gynecologic cancers themselves.
"It's been a wonderful experience," Davis says. "I'm able to support and encourage other women and say, 'Hey, you can do this. You're not alone.’"
The encouragement she offers mentees gives hope to many other women with cancer.
"The word cancer is scary. It does not mean you won't make it. When you go to a place where you’re feeling bad and you’re sad, you can visit it, but do not live there. You have to pick yourself back up."
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