This week's episode is an especially poignant episode as I speak to a very brave and special lady about the reality of navigating death in life.

Diane reached out to me as she has been listening to the podcast to give her the reassurance that after her own death, her husband, son and loved ones will be able to carve out a new and happy life for themselves.

Diane is living with metastatic ovarian cancer and wanted to come and talk about the reality of living with cancer from her own lived experience, as the patient, and the grief and loss she is experiencing and what she wishes for her loved ones when her time comes.

Diane openly shares how her work as a palliative care clinical nurse specialist, has helped her face her own diagnosis, and be able to talk about the things a lot of us would find very overwhelming and distressing.

That’s not to say it’s easy for Diane, far from it, but it provides a coping strategy allowing Diane to talk about it in a professional capacity stepping back, for moments in time, from the reality she is talking about herself.

However, in this podcast Diane shares a lot of her own grief within her diagnosis, how she feels about death and dying, and the reality of saying goodbye to those she loves dearly.

We discuss;

The different ways people grieve,

Anticipatory grief,

Guilt,

New relationships in widowhood,

The importance of communication,

Hopelessness and depression,

Existential crisis,

The healing power of nature,

living with uncertainty,

What death looks like,

And wishes for her loved ones in life after loss.

I have to say, this is one of the most powerful conversations i’ve had, and one of the bravest. Diane is incredible, her wisdom, kindness and openness offers so much to so many and I feel honoured to have been able to share this time with her.

As Diane so eloquently states, live life simply, find joy in simplicity, look for the good, find gratitude and always be kind. Wise words we could all learn from.

Thank you so much for your time Diane, it has been an absolute pleasure. 

If you wanted to reach out to Diane or find one of her support groups here are the links to all her offerings.

Website: https://dianeevanswood.wordpress.com/

Podcast “Living with Ovarian Cancer Podcast” which is available on all usual podcast platforms:  https://anchor.fm/diane-evans-wood

Cancer Support Group can be found on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1428310030743872/

Diane Evans-Wood on Facebook:  https://m.facebook.com/diane.evans.773

Instagram - Faery_realm:  https://www.instagram.com/faery_realm/