Julianne Danielle Lim was in her prime when she was diagnosed with stage three triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms of cancer.
The ex-private banker, who was the head of change management at a global private bank then, shares that her “core identity was almost immediately shaken” at the time of her diagnosis in July 2020, when she was 38. “I never thought breast cancer, or any cancer really, would happen to me,” she says.
“[I had a] ‘perfect’ image – I was ambitious and extremely driven; my hair and make-up was always well-groomed; I wore fitting dresses with a lean figure; and I also had a dynamic and successful career networking with business associates and interest groups, along with back-to-back meetings with friends and serving the community,” she recalls, describing the loss of self-identity when she was diagnosed. “[Without these traits], who am I?”