I have just made myself watch 'The C Word'. A few of my friends recommended it to me- people that are on my course who say things like "It was an incredible piece of acting". Which, yes it was. Sheridan Smith did an absolutely breath-taking performance. However, this wasn't the thing that struck me the most. As a drama student I love to watch things that inspire me, where the acting leaves you in awe but the most important thing that I took from watching this particular programme is how important life is.
I know some of you are rolling your eyes now as you read this but it's true. We take so much of our life for granted and I am so so grateful that Lisa Lynch shared her story with the world. I know there are millions of cancer sufferers out there and I don't think people recognise their suffering enough. It's something we shy away from, as Sheridan Smith says in 'The C Word'- "I'm British, we don't speak about death". But what we also don't speak about is how precious are lives are. Watching the C word I thought 'My God I am so lucky to have my hair' something I'd never really thought about whilst screaming into the mirror when it wouldn't style the way I wanted it to. I never thought about how incredible it is to be able to breathe, move, to live.
We are all so blessed to live and to laugh and to love and we never really consider this. So many of us spend our time looking at the negatives- thinking that a number on the scales or not looking like an airbrushed picture in a magazine really matters, when in reality it actually doesn't. We all seem to forget that we only get one chance at this, we don't know when we could be taken and it's important to be grounded by that fact sometimes. When you're bickering with your boyfriend over him leaving clothes on the floor of your room (sorry Anthy...and no this doesn't mean you can do it now) or when you're moaning over the fact you were 2% off a first at Uni (I hold my hands up to that one) think about how great it is to be physically and mentally able to study or to have someone in your life that loves you, whoever that may be.
The enormity of Cancer must have hit Lisa Lynch like a train yet she picked herself up, handled it in the most amazing way and changed the lives of so many people.
I really think we could all learn so much from her story and if you are reading this I want you to realise just how important you are, how wonderful your individual qualities are and how blessed you are to be capable of reading this with your own eyes.
After watching that it has really encouraged me to change my outlook on life, I don't want to fall off this planet knowing although people are crying somebody is secretly thinking "Well she was a bit of a miserable bitch anyway, wasn't she?"
Be grateful in all that you have and in all that you are. Life is wonderful.
