My cancer battle gave me the chance to survive - but not to live

They say that the toughest iron is made in the hottest fire. They say, go and live your life, you've beaten , you're cured. They say you can put that chapter behind you and move forward. They said if anyone can, it's you, Naz. The truth was very different. I was alone and exhausted, emotionally drained and scared, and physically battered from treatment. I was expected to rebuild my life with all the strength and support I didn't have.

Every 10 minutes a woman is diagnosed with in the UK. While medical advances have enabled more women to survive this beast, psychological care and support into survivorship is scarce. We are expected to 'bounce back' when we are an alien to our new "identity". We are expected to return to work and carry on when simple words are ghosts to us.

Here at the Daily Express we are running a Cancer Care campaign to ensure that all cancer patients get access to mental health support both during and after their treatment.

We need your help to get the message through to the Government and the NHS about how vital this is.

Lend your voice to the campaign by signing our petition:

We are expected to concentrate when we can't quite focus. We are expected to run the miles but are met with fatigue. And then there is the fear of cancer recurrence ticking away when we're trying to relax.

We can feel anxious, afraid, and lonely at a time when we've been given a chance to live again, to flourish, to enjoy the 'new normal' and be grateful.

Recent research shows that rates of anxiety and depression are much higher in long term survivors of breast cancer compared to the general population.

Research has also shown that anxiety and depression can increase the risk of mortality in this population. Younger women and those with lower social support are more vulnerable.

With more people surviving cancer, it is imperative that we have systems in place to help individuals rebuild their lives with emotional resilience.

My own diagnosis of breast cancer in 2013 came as a shock and the numbness haunts me to this day. My amazing daughter, the light of my life, was just under three years old.

I was at the prime of my career, promoted to the title of full professor the previous year, and then bang, I had breast cancer. A whole year of gruelling treatment, followed by 10 years of Tamoxifen, which put me into radical menopause in my thirties.

To say that you endure an emotional rollercoaster is an understatement.

I founded the Centre for Building Resilience in Breast Cancer (BRiC) a few years after my diagnosis. I quickly learned that women like me were not getting the support they needed to help rebuild their lives.

Women who are daughters, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, partners, and wanting to make meaningful strides in their
lives.

Being a psychologist and neuroscientist with decades of expertise in anxiety and depression, I decided to focus my research on discovering better ways to help women cope more effectively with the aftermath of diagnosis and treatment.

Women should be able to regain some control over their lives, the control that cancer took away. BRiC has grown into an award-winning centre, and its research is published widely in pioneering international peer-reviewed journals.

An important discovery of BRiC's research is the longer-term benefits of cognitive control training in improving working
memory and emotional resilience.

Cognitive training has helped improve workability and reduce and . Similarly, paced breathing exercises with biofeedback training (a tool which helps you consciously control your breathing rate by monitoring your heart rate activity), have led to reductions in menopausal symptoms and anxiety.have led to reductions in menopausal symptoms and anxiety longer term.

BRiC makes a difference to the lives of thousands of women through its community which is managed by its amazing admin team, and volunteers who make BRiC is a safe space for emotional support, sharing knowledge and practising resilience.

They say "there is no health without mental ". This I totally agree with. Mental health is the foundation. We cannot let cancer define us, but we need the support and education to keep its influence at bay.

Our brains are the most empowering organs and with the right fuel can take us where cancer won't dream of raising its ugly head. So we need to invest in the mental health of cancer patients and get the right support to the right person at the right time. This is possible with a vision that puts mental health in top priority.

This is why I support the to ensure that all cancer patients get access to mental health support both during and after their treatment.

Professor Nazanin Derakhshan is the founder of BRiC (Centre for Building Resilience in Breast Cancer)