In the last two years, I’ve had way too many friends be affected by serious and long term illness. I used to hate that I was the only person who’d gone through health problems but it turns out I hate it even more that I’m NOT the only person to have my extent of a medical record.
If I could take all the pain for my loved ones, I would. If I could be the one lying in a hospital bed, instead of them, I would. People often say that but I really mean it because being the loved one is harder. Watching is harder.
When my friends and even an ex went through these problems, they would say one of two things:
1) I’m sorry to complain to you. I know you had it so much worse.
OR
2) I’m sorry I never took you seriously or listened to you when you spoke about your health
Never apologise for not having it as bad as me. If everytime anyone complained to me about a cold, I retorted with a “you think a cold is bad, try a brain tumour”, I’d be a very angry person. My molehill might be your mountain but a mountain still feels like a mountain when you are mid-climb. I’m not here to compare. If it feels big to you, it IS big. And to the people who only understood after they went through it themselves, it’s OK. It’s human nature. I’m sorry you had to go through a shit time to understand. I wish you didn’t understand and never knew. #ScarredNotScared #LoveDisfigure
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Photo from @love_disfigure shoot. Photographer: @sophiemayanne