I’m asking because I really want to know. In a way, if it’s something that happened in the past, it kind of feels weird mentioning it to someone. But if a person is becoming a friend, you want them to know you better, right? I feel like if someone doesn’t at least know that I had cancer, then they don’t know enough about me, because now it’s a big part of me and my outlook on life.

But how do you bring it up in conversation? Usually I don’t – I just figure that once people have added me on Facebook or Twitter they will see me talking about it eventually, as I often do online, and they will just kind of realise. That’s probably a crappy way of doing it, but how do you bring it up otherwise? I guess I feel like because I don’t have it at the moment, people won’t see it as a big deal, so it would be weird for me to suddenly tell them. Or like I’m attention-seeking, or just being a bit weird, or they’ll be like, “why is she telling me this?”. And besides that, the last time I told someone I practically choked on the words. They are heavy and awkward and difficult to get out.

I don’t have anyone in particular in mind at the moment, but I’m just asking for future reference. So when you really want to tell someone you’re a cancer survivor, just so that they know you better and you can be a bit closer, how do you do it? What do you say, and when?