Laura Gray’s life changed completely when doctors broke the news she had stage four skin cancer.
The 35-year-old mum from Laurencekirk first found out she had stage one melanoma in 2017.
Three years later it progressed to stage three and, last August, she was told she was terminally ill.
But keen to look on the bright side, Laura’s managed to find her “oomph” with help from the Aberdeen Maggie’s cancer support centre.
And now she’s preparing to take on a daring stunt to give something back.
‘They gave me the boost to keep being optimistic’
After hearing the news, Laura turned to Maggie’s Aberdeen for support.
It provides all manner of free support groups, exercise classes and access to specialists.
And she was so impressed that her parents, partner and seven-year-old son, Reiko, have also benefitted.
“When you go it’s so comforting – and you leave with a bit of oomph to carry on,” Laura explained.
“They look at you as a person, not just a diagnosis.
“When I was told I was terminal I thought ‘oh well, that’s going to be it.’
“But they taught me ‘thinking about dying isn’t going to make you die any sooner’ and that was a turning point.
“‘Why can’t I just live my life now, book the holidays and do the things I want to do?’
“That gave me the boost to continue being optimistic.”
‘Opportunity to talk about cancer’
While her life has significantly altered since receiving the diagnosis, Laura stressed that Maggie’s has been by her side throughout the whole process.
“Me and my partner were having difficulty sleeping at night when things were really stressful and they were like ‘we’ve got this sleep workshop, lets get you along to that.’
“We went to two sessions and learned techniques that helped a lot with our sleep patterns,” she said.
Connecting with others in a similar position has also been therapeutic for Laura and means she can focus on other aspects of her life.
She said: “What I found really useful about Maggie’s was meeting other young women going through a similar thing.
“My experience up until that point was the majority of people it seemed to affect was older people.
“That’s not the case, but those were the people I’d met.
“Maggie’s opened that door for me to connect with people of similar circumstances to myself.
“It’s an opportunity to talk about cancer.
“In other parts of my life people will ask how I am but they don’t really want to talk about cancer all the time, neither do I.
“So you know you can go there and speak about anything and as you leave you think ‘I do feel a little bit lighter, I can focus on something different again’,” she added.
Later this month Laura will brave a walk across fiery coals to help raise money for Maggie’s Aberdeen and give something back.
She’s already raised hundreds of pounds in donations, and is collecting more via JustGiving ahead of the event on September 14.
Read more:
Maggie’s Aberdeen: Centre’s work is ‘bigger and better’ than ever before
Conversation