Verses keep breast cancer survivor Anna Dickie smiling

But while the disease is no longer present in her body – not at the moment anyway – the 53-year-old says the baggage that came with it is still there.

"I try not to define myself by it, but then people ask why you aren't working in your 50s and you have to explain," she says.

Then people's attitudes to the explanation are also sometimes curious. "They'll say, 'But you are all right now, though?'," she says. "I think that's as much to do with themselves as you." Other cultures, other periods in our own history, she says, seem to deal with death better than we do now. "We just seem to have somehow lost that."

It was partly that attitude which led the mother-of-one from Haddington to choose Darling, a poem by Edinburgh-born author Jackie Kay, for the Carry A Poem book, thousands of copies of which have been given out free across the city during February, as part of the 2010 citywide reading campaign, run by the City of Literature Trust.

The poem is written for Kay's friend, Julia Darling, the poet and playwright who died from breast cancer in 2005, aged 48. "When I was first diagnosed, she (Darling] was doing Women's Hour and she was blogging a lot – she was very open about living and dying with the disease. I found her generosity about her illness quite moving," says Anna. Kay's poem also appealed. "It didn't shy away from the disease or of someone dying. I found it quite refreshing."

While she says she doesn't want to be defined by the disease, Anna admits it has changed her profoundly. When she was diagnosed, she was working long hours in a job at the then-Scottish Executive on Victoria Quay, on top of a commute, looking after a teenage son and keeping active. "I played badminton, I swam every lunchtime," she says. She first got a sign something was wrong when she found she was struggling to do five lengths, when she had previously easily managed twice that. After her diagnosis, she underwent a mastectomy, 12 rounds of chemotherapy in 13 months and five weeks of radiotherapy. She was forced to give up her job and was left feeling "battered" physically and emotionally, despite the support of her partner and son.

"It's hard to find your equilibrium again," she says. "But I learned a lot about myself. I was an A-type personality – I didn't suffer fools gladly. I think I've changed into a more generous person, not as judgemental."

She took up photography and writing – she had a pamphlet of poems published last year – and has worked as a charity volunteer.

The disease could return, she knows to look out for repeated pains in her bones, but she still finds comfort in the Darling poem. "And comfort is what you need in life," she says, smiling.

www.carryapoem.com

'IT'S BEEN REALLY INSPIRING'

THE Carry A Poem campaign, which has been running throughout February in the city draws to a close tomorrow with a Poems for Haiti event at the Queen's Hall with Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The fourth citywide reading campaign, run by the City of Literature Trust, has seen 50,000 poetry cards given away – so popular, a reprint was ordered – more than 30 events and 13,000 books, featuring poems chosen for personal reasons by both celebrities and ordinary Scots.

The Usher Hall, the City Chambers and the National Library were among the buildings which featured nightly projections of poetry – and on Valentine's night, the line, "Look to the living, love them and hold on," from the poem Disenchantments by Douglas Dunn was projected on to the Castle.

City of Literature staff were delighted to see an Australian so moved by the romantic line he dropped to his knee and proposed to his Edinburgh girlfriend – she accepted. And they were bemused to watch a group of youths, swearing as they made their way down the street, stop, read the line, then continue walking and swearing.

Ali Bowden, director of the City of Literature Trust, says: "We've been amazed by the sheer number of people who've contacted us with their stories, poems and photos. It's been really inspiring."