Former cancer patient and ambassador of the Fuck Cancer project for the Vysočina Region

"Up until this point, I thought kids could only get cancer in the movies."

1) What appealed to you about the FUCK CANCER project and why are you putting your energy into it?

Ever since I was a little girl, I was a girl who wanted to change the world when cancer came at 15. I decided I wanted to help others, give them the courage to fight and help them on their journey. During my treatment, I thought about starting a foundation in the future, but there wasn't the time or resources to do that yet, so I'm happy to be a part of FUCK CANCER.

2) What does the term FUCK CANCER mean or express to you?

You know, a lot of people have cancer associated with death. But for me, cancer gave me a whole new lease on life. During my treatment, I changed the way I think and see the world. I made a Bucket List and now I'm gradually fulfilling my dreams. So FUCK CANCER is the start of new adventures for me. I told myself "FUCK CANCER" and I'm making my dreams come true...

3) Can you imagine who you are fighting for here as a "SOLDIER"?

I fight here for those who were with me in the worst of times and unfortunately are no longer with us, I fight for those who are going through difficult life situations and gradually losing the last bits of hope for a beautiful and happy life....It doesn't matter what we have been through or what we are going through..we can all have an amazing life. And that's what I'm fighting for.

4) What would you say to someone who says they find the phrase "FUCK CANCER" vulgar?

There is no vulgar term for overcoming such a disease. So FUCK CANCER!!

The story of Janča

I was 14 years old when my dad died. For months, I blamed myself for not recognizing that something was wrong with him and calling an ambulance in time. Mentally, I was in a very bad place and it got to the point where I wanted to kill myself. Eventually I realized that this wasn't the right path and I changed my decision. I stopped blaming myself for my dad's death and started enjoying life. Unfortunately, my body couldn't cope with such severe psychological problems and it took a toll on my health.

Unfortunately, I had been suffering for too long and my body couldn't cope with such psychological problems. The doctors couldn't deal with me. I had a series of examinations, I was given large doses of morphine for the pain, and it was more a matter of waiting for the end to come. Finally - "in 5 minutes 12" - the results of one examination showed that I had cancer. It's not nice to hear such a diagnosis at the age of 15, but we were all glad that they found out what was wrong with me and treatment could begin. Up until this point, I thought kids could only get cancer in the movies. I couldn't imagine what the whole treatment would actually look like and what would happen. The doctors briefed us on the content and length of the treatment - it consisted of 6 blocks of chemotherapy. Everything went more or less as prescribed. During the whole 4 months there were only 3 occasions when I needed to replenish red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

I am a person who likes to spend time with people and always needs to be somewhere. That's why it was hard for me to spend several months mostly in a hospital bed or at home. I felt trapped and like I couldn't do anything. At the time, I was grateful for social networking. I set up an account on one site where anyone could post anonymously. I thought it was a good way to keep in touch with the outside world, and it filled my void a bit. At first, it worked as a good form of entertainment and to fill my free time. However, in between the nice messages, insults and hate messages started to appear. Gradually it started to escalate, the hate messages increased and unfortunately it started to negatively affect my mental state. It took me some time to turn off the site, after all there were a few "nice people" who supported me and I was afraid that I would be alone again.  The other thing that bothered me during treatment was my friends. As the saying goes, "you know a friend in need", and this is exactly what happened to me during my treatment. The REAL friends called me, visited me, and constantly showed interest. And then there were the people I thought were the REAL ones, but the opposite was true. It was terribly disappointing that the people I really trusted weren't even willing to call to see how I was doing, or to stop by and chat. Later, I found myself even having to beg them to come visit me or at least take a moment because I had a Christmas present for them. I needed to feel wanted. My circle of friends had thinned out, but I appreciated the people who stayed all the more, and I appreciated that. I needed even more support to get back to "normal" life. It was a very difficult process, both physically and mentally. I thought that by ending chemotherapy I would somehow miraculously regain my strength and be able to play sports as I did before the illness. However, everything has to come slowly and gradually. But my younger self didn't realize that. I was overworking my body because I needed to feel "normal" again. My body was not ready for such a strain and let me know it.

Today I know that we need to realize what our body has done, how strong it was, how strong WE were. And then treat our body nicely. I did it, you can do it too. And the important thing is to have people around us who believe in us and will help us through this long and difficult process.

In the end, I would just like to say that we never know what fate will bring to our lives, but everything can be overcome. We can feel down, some of us have been down for a very long time, but we need to find the strength, pick ourselves up and fight. Let's enjoy life. Let's be happy, let's make the people around us happy. Our life is only in our hands, so let's live it to the best of our ability.

Soldiers & Heroes