Love, Unbroken

A Story of Love, Cancer and Courage

C M Maloney

(Draught 3)

For:

Bren and Oti, two of my greatest loves. I miss you.

Baden and Tyra, my reasons for everything.

#teambrendanm for never letting our family walk alone.

A Note to The Reader

This manuscript has been written using my original diary entries and blog posts. As a result, some passages are written in present tense while others maybe in past tense, reflecting how they were originally written. To preserve the authenticity of my voice, these entries have been left largely unchanged.

Key moments are also shared in story form, drawn directly from memories, conversations and diary entries written during those times.

Some names and locations have been changed for privacy reasons.

Welcome to Love, Unbroken

Love, Unbroken began as a series of blog posts (Cancer, the story of Us) here on calliemm between June 2014 and August 2017, as a way to share information regarding my husband Brendan’s fight against cancer. Not everyone chooses to use the word ‘fight’ when talking about cancer, we did. Brendan was in a fight for his life. We both knew it, and both stepped up.

As I gathered all those posts and added them to my journals, going back to when we first met in 1995, I realised I was telling a love story: our story. Bren’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, the hope we held onto, and the heartbreak we went through were the final chapters, but they weren’t the whole story.

Cancer didn’t define us, love did. Our story was one of friendship, family, community, and, yes, loss. But it was also about finding our way forward when the ground beneath us disappeared. Bren’s illness may have shaped our ending, but it did not overshadow the life we lived.

The 3rd draft of the complete manuscript of Love, Unbroken, follows this post, chapter by chapter, so friends, family, and anyone walking a similar path can read along. It has taken almost 8 years to get to this point. The last two of which I have spent organising our memories into book form. Often having to step away for weeks at a time to gather myself. The process has been cathartic, and difficult. There have been lots of tears, many of them happy when reliving what were the best years of my/our life, prior to Bren’s diagnosis.

I hope that when you read our story, you feel the courage, connection, and love that carried us through, knowing it’s also within you.

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Please note the information contained within this document is for educational and entertainment purposes only. All effort has been executed to present accurate, up to date, reliable, complete information. No warranties of any kind are declared or implied. Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaged in the rendering of legal, financial, medical or professional advice. The content within this book has been derived from various sources. Please consult a licensed professional before attempting any techniques outlined in this book.

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