Breast cancer awareness month: survivor on her journey to recovery, and moving to Hong Kong during the pandemic
- Julia Marino was diagnosed with Stage 3a breast cancer in 2018 while living in Tokyo, Japan
- She talks about her journey towards recovery, how she ended up on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island after quarantining, and her hope she is now cancer-free
A hermit crab, when confronted with potential danger, seeks safety inside its outer shell. As the crab grows, it needs to move into larger empty shells to survive, exposing it to danger with each change.
“Maybe hermit crabs are my spirit animals,” I said to my husband, Julien, who humoured me with a half-smile and kiss. We were sitting on the roof of our new home on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island, watching the sun set, reminiscing about Okinawa.
We had just moved from Japan and were slowly settling into our salvaged shell in this strange time in history. For most of our lives, we’ve searched for it.
That sense of adventure led us to each other in Sicily four years ago, to marry in Sweden, almost move to Ireland, and at the last minute, to settle instead in Tokyo – a city where we knew no one, nor the language.
Such events present themselves like surprise gifts, to be unwrapped and embraced. Then there are those that blindside us, that we fight and accept at the same time – like breast cancer.
