Pink Warrior Dragon - Where it all began.
Pink Warrior
She Came To Me in a Foggy Chemo Dream
It’s been 19 years and yet just a blink of my eye since when I first saw the Pink Warrior. When she came to me in a chemo dream and has been with me every step along our journey.
I was diagnosed with stage 3, aggressive ER-positive, invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer in July of 2005. Despite the months of my fighting to see the doctor, then fight to get a mammogram, watching & feeling this lump change & grow larger every day. I consider the date of my diagnosis is when my battle officially began. A journey filled with a lot of fear, treatments, surgeries & procedures since. (More details of this battle will be found in the “Our Stories Matter” section.
Like others, I had a very tough time with my aggressive chemotherapy plan with many changes to keep the treatments going for as long as my body would allow. I spent hours & hours & hours vomiting after my first chemotherapy until finally having to be treated at the hospital to get things under control.
At my next treatment more medications were added `to fight the treatment side effects, some of these caused a sedative side effect. The nurses had suggested that, for many cancer fighters/survivors it helps if you envision a great light, an angel or something coming to us to comfort & help us feel safe in our battles.
That treatment, when I was saying my prayers I slipped into a foggy chemo dream. It was there that Pink Warrior Dragon came to me, in most mythology, a dragon is portrayed as a threat but when this strong & beautiful dragon came to me, for the first time since this began, I truly felt protected. She held a sword & a shield, the words Pink Warrior were emblazed on it, she was there in the trenches with me, standing at ready, protecting me & telling me to fight like a dragon!
I remember telling Kelly, my husband, about the Pink Warrior and describing how every detail of her was so clear. Even though she stayed with me & wrote down as many details as I could afraid if she left I may not remember. We looked up the meanings of all the details I had seen & described, we were awed by what we found.
DRAGON = a dragon itself is known as a valiant defender. Her stance was not aggressive, but rather she was staying at ready, protective & ready for the battle.
SWORD & SHEILD = representing power, honour, protection & prophesy. Ready to fight, to protect and , I felt, to win!!
Details of the sword.
DRAGON = a valiant defender
SHAMROCKS = the trinity & longevity (a long life)
A KNIGHT’S HELMET = wisdom, strength and protection
EAGLE = strength & protection
A KNIGHT’S SCARF = a wise defence (this the sash on the shield where her Pink Warrior name is)
HEART WITH THREE NAILS = the passion nails, sincerity & meaningful suffering
So, we looked forward to see if the colours, pink & grey, had meanings. Mrs Google searches did not find these directly but the colours that make them up had great meanings.
RED = blood, sacrifice, martyr and warrior
WHITE = purity, truth, innocence
BLACK = war, death, or grief.
PINK = (red & white) to us it meant a pure sacred sacrifice. A true warrior.
GREY = (black & white) to us it meant a war of pureness or truth vs death or grief
I wasn’t sure if the Pink Warrior would mean anything to anyone else but I wanted to at least share her with my family & friends who had loved & supported me in my ongoing journey. So my husband, Kelly, hired a very talented local artist named Holly Hanley to sketch & paint the Pink Warrior dragon. Sharing my vision & all we had found she started working.
I will never forget how emotional it was when Holly showed us what she had done & the Pink Warrior came to life for all to see. This was such a beautiful gift that Kelly had arranged for me. Perhaps she could touch the lives other fighters/survivors & their supporters too.
Pink Warrior first came to me in that foggy chemo dream 19 years ago. She was a huge source of comfort & protection over these years. She has also been the centre of all the fundraising & awareness that we did throughout the years. She has been a source of hope, inspiration & protection for so many over these years for all types of cancer. Our team no longer do the big events but will still see her image &/or name on all that we do.
*We hope you enjoyed reading this and we hope it addresses your questions about her. If you are inspired or want to learn more about our battle & journey, as a survivor, as a couple & a cancer research foundation throughout our books, Pink Warrior & Friends, Cooking Up a Cure, throughout this website on Sea of Pink – Angel, Our Stories Matter and About Us. (Some areas of our website are still under re-construction so have not been updated yet.)