Daria ... one hell of a special lady

Daria Maluta has passed, writes her husband Don on her blog daria-livingwithcancer. She was one hell of a special lady who lived the last few years of her life with metastatic breast cancer. I never met her - she lived in Edmonton, Canada but I felt like I knew a part of her through her blog. Read it.

And read this blog  too, for just one example of what she meant to us out there.


And read this,  one of her earlier postings, which another blogger has posted in tribute to her.

The blogasphere is abuzz with tributes to Daria; she touched us all. I am reading them but too upset to say much more.

My thoughts are with Daria

Every day I log onto read Daria's blog. Called daria-livingwithcancer, every day she writes in the morning. Daria, who lives in Canada, has metastatic breast cancer and has been on a trial. It shrunk her tumours but affected her liver badly. Now her husband, whom she always referred to as D, has identified himself as Don and says she is no longer able to post to her blog. She is in hospital and not really able to talk but knows what is happening around her. Daria has been an inspiration. Read her blog and see what she has written and how people have responded to her. Feeling very emotional about it all.

Thinking of Daria

One "meets" all sort of people in the world of blogland and cancer. Sometimes it feels as if everyone who has cancer starts a blog. I know it was something I decided to do the day I was diagnosed. Not sure why. Until then I had been dead against starting a blog. Anyway, it has been great, well, at least for me. At first it was an ideal way to communicate with friends far away and keep them posted. Even friends nearby, when it was hard to repeat things again and again. But now it really helps me.
Anyway, I read blog after blog after blog on the Internet. But only a few really click me with me. One is Julie Goodale's Fitness for Survivors and the other now is Daria's Living with Cancer.
Daria lives in Edmonton, Canada.Her profile reads: "My cancer journey started at the age of 39 when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Treatment included radiation and chemotherapy as well as hormone therapy. In 2004, I had a recurrence in my chest area. The hormone therapy was changed with no other cancer to be found. Fast forward to 2008, an annual mammogram showed a lump in my left breast. After numerous scans and tests, the news was not good … cancer in my lungs, liver and bones. I've been on chemotherapy since August 2008."
Chemo since August 2008 sounds daunting, more than daunting but Daria is cheerful. And her blog is breezy and informative. Just seen she has another blog too, called Finding Meaning, but also see she has not written on it for a while.
Go for it, Daria! Think of you a lot. You sound like an amazing person. Would love to come visit you, take you for tea/whatever but you are in Canada and I am in South Africa.