At 29, one woman was able to turn the loss of her hair after a breast cancer diagnosis into an actual diamond.
Visit mostpreciousstone.com to learn more about Danielle's story and how you can help the fight against breast cancer. With Against Breast Cancer.
Visit mostpreciousstone.com to learn more about Danielle's story and how you can help the fight against breast cancer. With Against Breast Cancer.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Everybody should live like they're dying, basically.
00:03And...
00:05LAUGHTER
00:06That's a terrible thing to say.
00:21I was actually in the shower when I found the lamp.
00:31I was getting married six months after that
00:34and I had a four-month-old baby at the time.
00:41When I went for the ultrasound,
00:43the radiographer actually said to me
00:46that it didn't look like a cyst
00:49and he wanted to do a biopsy.
00:51So we did a biopsy a few days later
00:55and from that we found
00:59that I had cancer.
01:09When the oncologist told me that it was stage four,
01:13I kind of had like an adrenaline rush
01:17or I just was shaking through shock.
01:20I don't really remember what she was saying
01:23but I know that I said I needed to take a break
01:26and I walked out into the hallway,
01:28the corridor of the hospital
01:30and I just collapsed onto the floor
01:33and I couldn't even cry at this point.
01:35I just felt like it wasn't real and it wasn't happening to me.
01:39I just laid on the floor and I said to my mum,
01:41you're going to end up burying me.
01:56I got my head around the fact I had cancer
01:58and I was ready to fight it.
02:00But then stage four, when you find out that your cancer is terminal
02:03and you're going to be on palliative treatment
02:05to try and prolong your life for as long as possible,
02:08it took me a few days.
02:11I was just blind with grief basically.
02:22If I give myself something to focus on,
02:24then it kind of pulls me out of the house
02:27and it forces me to push myself
02:30and when that's over, I'll find something else that I need to focus on.
02:34So I'm going to constantly be looking to the future
02:37and I think that's something that all cancer patients,
02:40especially terminal cancer patients need to do.
02:43They need to look to the future.
02:45They need to believe that they are going to have one.
02:47I never dreamed that I could have breast cancer at 29
02:51and now having it and being part of this whole cancer community,
02:55I know that there's people actually that are younger than me
02:59that have breast cancer and it's quite shocking.
03:22So hair and diamonds are made out of the same thing.
03:25They're made out of carbon,
03:27but obviously natural diamonds take thousands of years
03:31to be made in nature.
03:34But now there's a way that you can actually use hair
03:38to make diamonds much quicker.
03:52I just feel like the diamond is just a symbol of
03:56not just my fight, but other women's fight
04:00or other people's fight against cancer
04:03because there can be pain, there can be trauma and heartache,
04:07but look what can come of that.
04:09You can become a diamond.
04:22If it isn't in my lifetime, maybe in my daughter's lifetime,
04:26she will be able to see an end to breast cancer
04:29because this is going to affect her as well
04:32because obviously her mother has breast cancer
04:35and that may mean that in the future she's more likely to contract the disease
04:39and all I want to know is that my daughter will be able to live and be OK.
04:51For more information, visit www.fema.gov