“My first thought was, ‘How did I get cancer?’ I was a fitness trainer. I followed a healthy diet and exercised almost every day.”

At the time she was an instructor of Jazzercise – a combination of dance, aerobics, strength and resistance training – and living in Los Angeles, in the US state of California, with her husband and three teenage children.

“It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it explained why I got the cancer,” she says. Her grandmother had died from ovarian cancer.

She had a hysterectomy in December 2020 and had her other breast removed in June 2021, “because of the higher risk of cancer from the gene mutation”, she says, adding that she had battled several side effects from the treatments.

The process was hard, physically and emotionally.

“I fell apart. All my life, I had been stoic and independent. I thought, how am I ever going to recover from this?” she says. “The hardest part was losing my hair, which started falling out in chunks.”

She had a pixie haircut between her first and second chemotherapy rounds, and had her head shaved ahead of round three.

Her husband and mother were her pillars of strength.

“My husband took charge, from doing research on the cancer treatments and fixing doctor appointments to taking care of my nutrition and cooking for me,” she says.

“My mother is a retired hospice nurse and having her around was a blessing. She explained all the medical terms to me and kept my husband calm.

“She made a temporary breast prosthesis for me from [wool] and pillow stuffing, until I could be fitted with a permanent one. Because of her, I was able to rest and heal without having to worry about anything.”

When Maddox developed mouth sores that made it hard for her to eat, a friend recommended The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen cookbook. Dietitian Rebecca Katz had been inspired to write it for a friend undergoing cancer treatment.

It has more than 150 recipes that stimulate the appetite and address the side-effects of cancer treatment.

“There were days when I did not feel like eating anything. My husband would make a broth, following one of the recipes from the book.”

Cancer changed the way she looked at food.

“I had put on weight with my pregnancies and though I had lost the excess weight, I had become ‘obnoxious’ about my diet, counting calories all the time. Now, I still choose to eat healthy food, yet treat myself to pizzas and spaghetti occasionally.”

Her therapist recommended Bessel van der Kolk’s book The Body Keeps the Score, which became her go-to guide.

“The book taught me that the trauma I had undergone had changed my brain and caused my anxiety. It made me receptive to using tools to improve my mental health. I realised that ‘meditation’ was just as valid as ‘medication’.

“I was able to see that the medication allowed me to have the mental space to meditate. Meditation then improved the effectiveness of the medication.”

A daily meditation practice has helped “rewire” her brain and centred her. “It has made me realise what I need to let go of and what I need to work on. Whenever I begin to feel anxious, I bring my awareness to my breath. It calms me down instantly.”

Maddox and her family relocated to Hong Kong in August in 2021.

“I was looking forward to beginning a new chapter in my life, and the move was the perfect chance to start over,” says Maddox, for whom the city also turned out to be a great place to make her journey back into fitness.

She walks for an hour three times a week, often along her favourite walking trails: Lugard Road at The Peak, and in and around Aberdeen.

“I write three things that I am grateful for, my affirmation for the day and reflect on what I could have done better.

“Focusing on what I am grateful for has taught me that regardless of the difficulties we may be facing at any time, there is always something to be thankful for.”

Maddox is thankful for her children.

“I am proud of them. All three of them learned to cook and do the laundry while I was undergoing treatment. They learned that adults get scared and cry and that parents do not have all the answers,” she says.

“Cancer has been a great teacher. Before my diagnosis, I spent all my life caring and thinking about others. I put myself last.

“Cancer taught me to take care of myself without feeling guilty and to focus on my mental and emotional well-being.”

As a birthday gift to herself, Maddox got a tattoo of a compass on her back.

“A compass seemed perfect as it doesn’t tell you where to go but shows you the way. That’s what cancer did for me. It gave my life a new direction.

“It made me realise that I needed to pay attention to myself, that my thoughts and needs are as valid as others, and I should respect myself as much as I respect others.”