Breast Cancer Awareness month is a funny concept for me. Since I am more than aware of it ALL OF THE TIME. You live with a cancer diagnosis well past the point that the treatment stops, but it fades a little more with every clear scan result. In between those is hope, with a large side order of 'what-the-hell-just-happened?' and a heaped spoon of extreme tumultuous fear.

So to revisit the events of my own breast cancer journey for the November issue of ELLE was both cathartic and uncomfortable. It is for this exact reason that my poor neglected blog, sophiefeelsbetter.blogspot.com, has remained largely untouched since I checked out of the Royal Marsden. It was a daily source of comfort to me and the women who read it, as I documented my journey through cancer and the beauty issues I learnt to overcome.

Once I dipped a toe back into the real world though, I was less inclined to dwell. This is all part of the process of 'getting back to normal', which I am still learning is nigh-on impossible.

My efforts are now focussed on reaching a new normal, since everyone should really have one of those with each major life event. Cancer was just one of a long list of mine in recent years, along with a new husband, a new house and a new job. We're all aiming for the same thing really; being able to adjust in the face of those unexpected things that might knock you off your path. Mine may have been less a hiccup, more extreme acid reflux, but hey, adjusting is adjusting right?

Read my story in the November issue of ELLE, out now. Throughout October, ELLE will be supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month.