Andrea Ruano, 28, was living in Manchester, working as a graphic designer, illustrator and photographer on a marketing team.
When restrictions started to come in, she decided to return to Salamanca, Spain, where she grew up and her family still live.
She is adjusting to living and working at home but she is no stranger to isolation as she was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in 2007, a rare type of cancer that occurs in the bones.
Like many cancer patients, Andrea spent time in isolation during treatment as her immune system was compromised. Fortunately, Andrea’s treatment worked and she recovered.
Although her own experience was over a decade ago, Andrea now works with the charity Youth Cancer Europe to help others.
YCE’s community of young cancer survivors has rallied together to share their own expert tips on how to best deal with self-isolation during this time, which Andrea has been illustrating for the organisation’s social media pages as part of her volunteer work.
She has also started embroidery again – something she picked up studying Fine Arts at university. She is creating pictures of bones, referencing the type of cancer she had.
For My Quarantine Routine, she explains a typical day.
8:30 am
I try to wake up fairly early every morning, but as some mornings I am pretty stiff and in pain so I might also take things slower.
9:00 am
I get some breakfast, some coffee and snack on a couple of biscuits whilst catching up on the news and some social media.
9:30 pm until 2 pm
I start working, starting with sorting out my emails and then jumping into the big projects whilst listening to chilled music.
2 pm
Break time, as I get lunch with the family. As I am back in Spain now, we all sit together to eat, and it’s a proper meal.
When I am in the office I might squeeze a sandwich whilst working, as I am in the zone and then it’s harder to go back.
2 pm until 5.30 pm
Some more work time, calls if I have to, or any meetings.
5:30 pm
Now I have a nice routine of going downstairs to the living room and having tea with my mum whilst we watch something on TV.
6:30 pm
I do my volunteer work for Youth Cancer Europe and work on my own personal little projects, like embroidery or drawing.
Since 2015, I have been an active patient advocate as a member of Youth Cancer Europe (YCE), a patient organisation in which I’m also part of the communications team, contributing to design and illustrate the organisation’s white paper which was launched in 2018 at the European Parliament in Brussels.
8.30pm until 11 pm
A little snack, usually some cereal. This is also some me time, where I either watch some episodes of my favourite TV shows or do embroidery.
I also FaceTime my boyfriend, as he’s still in England and we haven’t seen each other since mid-March. It is usually one of my favourite times of day.
It’s important to set boundaries between work and down time while at home. I strongly encourage people to set time aside to dive back into an old passion or discover a new hobby to take up – a bit of time each day that they can dedicate to just themselves and doing something that they genuinely enjoy.
I’ve dived back into embroidery – an art form which I picked up at university – but with an added twist.
Tying back to my experience with cancer, I have been embroidering bones – a recurring theme that was also the subject of an experimental art project I put together some time ago.
Embroidering forces me to focus on something that completely switches me off from my work routine.
It forces you to be present and in the moment… otherwise you risk messing up your hands!
You can find out more about Youth Cancer Europe via their website.
YCE members (including Andrea) are also regularly sharing their top tips for dealing with self-isolation on the organisation’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/14/quarantine-routine-andrea-picking-embroidery-lockdown-12701402/
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