Isabella

Tomorrow is my late brother in law's anniversary, it will be 12 years since Mark died from cancer. He was diagnosed with liver cancer and had chemotherapy treatment, the cancer spread and he died six months later. My sister Isabella of course was devastated and at the time we were all very sad as Mark was a beautiful person and to this day we miss him dearly. At that particular time I was going through a happy new phase where I was in a new relationship and even though I still grieved for Mark, I had other things distracting me from it all and soon learnt to deal with the situation. I was always there for my sister when she needed me and did what I could, but I think at the time and I've only just realised this, I don't think I actually realised how bad she was feeling, and even if I did,  I don't think I would have been able to deal with it any differently. Now that mum is sick, my sister has had to take her for appointments, scans, blood tests etc and communicate with the doctors about her condition. It is now that I realise how difficult and stressful it must have been for Isabella to have to do that so many years ago, especially for her husband whom she loved dearly and whom she thought was going to grow old with her. I am grateful for my sister Isabella for doing this all again, for our mother this time. I don't think I could have done it any better or dealt with it quite as well as she does. So my beautiful sister Isabella, I love you and thank you!
Steph

Cancer Does Not Discriminate

There is no distinction, discrimination or favouring when it comes to cancer! You can be fat or skinny, white or black, kind or mean, blonde or brunette, young or old. My mother is waiting on a biopsy to determine what is happening with her pancreas, the doctors say that she has a 99% chance she has pancreatic cancer. This will be the 5th time she has had to battle it, the last four times was for Hodgkins Lymphoma (Hodgkins Disease) a cancer that attacks your lymph glands. This time however she is 74 years old and frail, the last time she had cancer was 11 years ago and she had Dad to encourage her and look after her, and well Dad ain't here to do that.  I haven't seen my mother as thin as she is now. We went to visit her today and she didn't look too bad, a little uncomfortable with some pain but she was very happy to see us all. I think maybe mum has accepted her condition as she did the previous times. My only wish is that the treatment will work just as it did then. We can only hope and pray and support her during her next battle. I am still hopeful that perhaps it's a cancer that can be treated and a speedy recovery to follow.

Steph