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Continue reading →: A cruel endurance testIt was the beginning of March, three months since the day the ground split open beneath us with the words “triple negative breast cancer.” That diagnosis had carved out a before and after in my life. And this was the day the “after” was about to take shape in detail:…
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Continue reading →: Time becomes elastic
Time changed the day I was diagnosed. It didn’t just move forward, it lunged ahead, propelling me into a world I hadn’t wanted to enter, one I hadn’t prepared for. Days blurred into weeks, hours slipped away, and suddenly my life was broken down into tightly packed appointments, test results,…
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Continue reading →: The first PET scan
The morning of my first PET scan was one of those days when the world seemed to echo my mood. Heavy clouds pressed down on the city, the rain drumming steadily on the windows, and everything felt grey, sodden, and cold. I had woken early, not because I wanted to,…
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Continue reading →: Into quicksand
Finding out you have cancer is hard. But telling your loved ones – that’s the most difficult thing in the world. Even now, it still pains me to think of how my husband looked at me that night. How we sat silently on the floor of my study, the weight…
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Continue reading →: The Christmas tornado
Between Storm and Silence: A Liminal Space of Not-Knowing The storm came on Christmas Day, as though the sky had decided to join in the chaos that was already brewing inside me. A tornado ripped through the Gold Coast, tearing down powerlines, trees, and any illusions of stability we had…
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Continue reading →: Losing my muchness
You’re not the same as you were before. You were much more… muchier. You’ve lost your muchness. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer. The urge was stitched into me from the very beginning, like a quiet stubborn thread woven through my childhood. Other…
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Continue reading →: Standing in the light
You made it, you’re alive, this is yours. Every morning that I wake up now feels like a privilege. To breathe deeply, to stretch, to put my feet on the floor and feel my body move – these are miracles I once overlooked. To walk to the kitchen, to make…
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Continue reading →: Words matter
Healing Through Words: Why I Came Back to Writing There was a moment not long ago when I nearly gave it all up. I deleted my blog. I deleted my social media accounts. I deleted all the posts I wrote last year, in the thick of cancer treatment, the raw…
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Continue reading →: Full circleWe’ve come full circle,I said to my husband,casual,like I hadn’t been rehearsing the line in my head for weeks;like I wasn’t already clutchingthe silence between my ribslike a life raft. We were standing in the kitchen,morning light slanting across yesterday’s dishes,and I said it,full circle,like healing was geometry,like survival made…
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Continue reading →: UntetheredTrying to write my way back I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve sat down to write about my cancer experience. Since my diagnosis last year, I’ve opened blank documents with every intention of recording what I was going through. I told myself I’d journal through chemotherapy, reflect on…
Hello,
I’m Michelle
Hi, I’m Michelle Aziz; writer, cancer survivor, and advocate for women navigating life after diagnosis.
I’m currently writing my debut memoir, The Year My Boobs Tried to Kill Me, an honest, sometimes darkly funny, and deeply human account of my experience with breast cancer and the messy, beautiful process of rebuilding life afterwards.
Writing became my way to heal, a way to make sense of everything cancer took, and everything it gave back. Through words, I found strength, clarity, and connection; and now I help other women do the same.
Through my volunteer peer support work with Cancer Council Queensland and my growing advocacy for women with cancer, I’ve discovered a new purpose: to use my story and lived experience to help others feel seen, supported, and hopeful about their future.
Healing Through Words is where I share stories, reflections, and conversations that remind us we are more than our diagnosis, and that healing, like writing, begins one word at a time.
Let’s connect
New book coming soon!
Get notified when my memoir is available to order.
healing through words 