Hi, I’m the person behind Maybes, also known as the Mistress of Maybes on social media.
I’ve always had the decisive powers of a demented fruit fly and have been cursed by wanting to do a little bit of everything, often resulting in a lot of nothing.
Maybe I’ll stick with the sensible career. Maybe I’ll jack it all in and write that book I’ve been threatening to write. Maybe I’ll change industries. Maybe I’ll start a business. Maybe I’ll make some new friends. Maybe I’ll find love. Maybe I’ll move house. Maybe I’ll finally declutter my wardrobe. Maybe I’ll have children. Maybe I’ll become an artist.
The list goes on and on.
What never crossed my mind as even a possible maybe was that I might get seriously ill.
I found a lump in my breast in November 2025. Even then, cancer didn’t feel like a particularly credible possibility. The overwhelming likelihood was that it was a cyst. Until the biopsy results came back.
There’s no maybe about a diagnosis of triple-negative breast cancer. It’s a rare and aggressive form of cancer with limited treatment options. The plan was six months of intense chemotherapy, immunotherapy, surgery and then radiotherapy. Suddenly, 2026 looked rather different from the year I’d imagined.
I started talking about it online. Not really to anyone. More to the ether.
I was dealing with a lot of treatment on my own, and there was something strangely helpful about pointing a camera at myself and saying out loud what was happening to someone who didn’t exist. Sometimes that meant the frightening bits. Sometimes the practical bits. Sometimes it was the completely ridiculous stuff that nobody tells you about until you suddenly find yourself living it.
But I still had lots of maybes left.
Maybe the treatment would work. Maybe I’d be cured. Maybe I’d finally write the book. Maybe the time off work would do me the world of good. Maybe I’d lose my hair. Maybe it would actually be fun to have it short for a change. Maybe my fertility would be preserved. Maybe my family would drive me mad. Maybe something good could come out of a year I certainly wouldn’t have chosen.
And there was (and is!) a whole person around the cancer.
I live in London. I have strong opinions about subjects that probably don’t warrant strong opinions. I love good food, beautiful places, books that stay with me, getting dressed up for absolutely no reason, learning new things and disappearing down research rabbit holes from which I may or may not ever emerge.
I start projects. I have ideas. Quite a lot of ideas, actually. Some of them turn into something. Most of them remain maybes.
Maybe I’ll be okay.