Cancer Doesn’t Follow The Seasons

A few weeks into the New Year, Aotearoa has slipped back into the rhythm of the year.

The heat of summer lingers. The days are still long. There’s talk of beach weekends, barbecues, and getting back into routines. Traffic has returned. Emails are flowing again. Life, it seems, is back on.

If you’re facing cancer, this contrast can feel especially sharp.

While New Zealand moves through summer mode, you might still be feeling tired, foggy, sore, or emotionally raw. You may be wondering why your body hasn’t caught up with the calendar, or why “back to normal” feels so far away.

There is nothing wrong with you.

Cancer Doesn’t Follow the Seasons

Cancer doesn’t pause for Christmas, and it doesn’t reset just because it’s January.

Your body may still be healing from surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or ongoing treatment. Fatigue doesn’t lift because the sun is out. Pain, nerve changes, brain fog, nausea, and hormonal shifts don’t disappear just because it’s summer.

Emotionally, you may still be carrying shock, fear, grief, or uncertainty. The holiday noise has quietened, and now there’s space for thoughts to return. Scans may be coming up. Appointments may still shape your weeks. The question of “what happens next?” can feel louder now.

So if you feel out of step while everyone else seems to be diving into summer, it’s not because you’re failing. It’s because you’re living with cancer.

When Energy Comes and Goes

Summer often brings expectations — to be out, to be social, to make the most of the good weather.

But cancer can make energy unpredictable. One day you might manage a short walk in the sun or sit outside with a cup of tea. The next, your body might ask for rest, shade, or quiet. Planning ahead can feel impossible when you don’t know how tomorrow will feel.

That’s not weakness or lack of effort. It’s your body doing its best to cope.

You Don’t Have to Be “Back to Normal”

For many people facing cancer, there is no tidy return to who you were before.

And that can feel especially isolating when everyone else seems to have moved on, booked holidays, or picked up where they left off.

At Look Good Feel Better, we see this every day. And we want you to know: you don’t need to match the season, the calendar, or anyone else’s expectations. There is no rush. There is no deadline for feeling okay.

A Gentler Way Through Summer

Instead of seeing the New Year as a fresh start, it may help to think of it as a softer continuation.

Let summer be what it can be for you, even if that’s resting in the shade, feeling the breeze on your skin, or simply opening a window and letting the light in.

Moving at your own pace is allowed. Listening to your body is wise. Choosing rest is not giving up.

Sometimes the most supportive thing is having space where nothing needs to be different.

At Look Good Feel Better, we’re here to walk alongside you, through this summer, and whatever season comes next.