15/05/2025
This is a really hard post to write, but I feel it needs to be said, so bear with me.
If you followed in my stories I said that I was doing some health checkups while I was not working. One of these checks has done it's job and detected something.
I had noticed a very minuscule dent (about 1cm) in my left breast - honestly it was barely visible and at times I thought I imagined it. But it was more visible when lifting my arm and frankly when it comes to b***s, you just don't risk it, even though I never had a lump of any kind. I really expected it to be nothing at all. It wasn't nothing.
So, on Wednesday last week I've been diagnosed with breast cancer. It's a pretty frightening thing to be told, but I have been very lucky, I've caught it early, and it's a very treatable tumour meaning that I have the best possible prognosis and can be essentially cured (assuming nothing changes). I will have a relatively small surgery, some radiotherapy and I will be taking some hormone blocking drugs. I feel fine, I have zero symptoms and I'm in the best possible hands with the breast team at Basel Unispital. I feel well cared for.
So yeah, check your b***s ladies. Do it. Do it now (or in the morning!) And if you see any, even tiny, things that you think are nothing, even if you can't feel a lump, GET IT CHECKED. Do it for me please. I am thankful to the brave and beautiful breast cancer survivors that I know that have said this to me and led me to always do it - even if you might feel like a numpty poking and staring at your own b***s, it can save your life.
What this means for the Craft Room?
1) I will not be taking any classes for some time. If everything goes according to plan I may be back teaching in August.
2) I don't have any booked classes that I know of. If you have one and I've missed it, pease get in touch asap.
3) I'll be closing the "physical" part of my Etsy shop - you can still buy and download my patterns that are up there, but I won't be making or shipping any hooks or yarn.
4) If you've got an outstanding order on Etsy it will still go, I just won't be taking new ones.
5) If you have a voucher for a class with me, I offer you these options:
- you can ask me for a refund. I will honour all those requests, but it may just take me a while to process, so you will get your money back, but give me some time please (it is just me in my shop so, yeah, a bit of grace please).
- if I don't hear from you then I will extend the amount of time your voucher is valid according to the time I am closed - so at the moment you will get an extra 3 months on the validity - depending on my recovery I might need longer but I'll let you know. You can switch to ask for a refund at any time, but please note I might not be very quick to respond as mentioned above.
I feel hopeful that I will be fine I really do, so please don't worry about me.
I may not be posting on social media a lot, but I will try to keep you updated on what is going on.
