Renowned San Francisco Chef Dominique Crenn shared a poem to Instagram this week that is resonating with a lot of cancer survivors. Crenn, who operates three restaurants in the Bay Area and also appeared in the popular Netflix docuseries “Chef’s Table,” revealed earlier this month that she would be undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
This week, she posted of photo of herself in the car going to her first chemotherapy appointment — the caption for the photo included the poem, which she cited as “a beautiful poem, from a beautiful person.”
Read MoreThousands of comments and well-wishes filled Crenn’s page after she shared the poem. Crenn has said she plans to remain in the kitchen as much as possible throughout her cancer journey — which resonates with so many survivors who are determined to keep working through cancer, as much as they can. Because of Crenn’s celebrity chef status, keeping up with work will likely be rather difficult. One of her restaurants, Atelier Crenn, has earned her three coveted Michelin stars. She is the first female head chef to be awarded the honor, according to ABC 7.
Yesterday, Crenn updated her friends and fans about her condition once again. “I could never have imagined that my life path would include this turn,” she wrote on Instagram. “I have only experienced myself as invincible. I am a cook and we are known for our unwavering commitment to hard work. I am learning that I will need to spend some time resting and learning to care for myself in ways I have yet to do. I plan to channel that commitment to hard work toward my health.”
Crenn’s sentiment is one that is paralleled by so many of the survivors in the SurvivorNet family. Many have told us that it was really a struggle to make some of the life changes necessary when battling cancer, especially since sometimes the typical work schedule does need to be sacrificed. However, many members of the SurvivorNet family also said that maintaining a normal, or somewhat normal, work schedule actually helped them recover from treatment. The idea is to maintain a level of normalcy throughout the treatment journey.
Ashley Saaranen, a second grade teacher, actually credits her job with helping her take on chemotherapy. “Teaching through chemotherapy was the best thing for me,” she told SurvivorNet. “…It was the reason I survived chemotherapy … I really truly believe that. When I tell people that I have cancer, adults are very sad, they’re worried. When I told my class that I have cancer, they weren’t scared. They knew that we would get through it together.”
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