Hello, 

My mum had breast cancer 8 years ago and beat it, and then she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer that was in her bones last year. Since then it has spread to her liver and lung, and I am struggling to cope. 

I am 16 years old, and I have a little sister who is 8 years old, and who doesn't really get what's happening. 

My mum is a very strong woman, she owns 2 businesses (which she still runs with her cancer!) and we are currently building a guest house on our property, which she buying all the furniture (she's a really stylish woman), so the cancer really isn't holding her back. Except for horse riding. She starting riding when she was a kid, and 2 years ago she bought her dream horse. But then she wasn't able to ride it anymore because of her cancer, and she's really upset about it. 

Recently she has been really short and snappy with everyone, but we all put up with it because we know its because she's tired and grumpy. She just called me into her room and had a talk with me about it. She said she wasn't coping and that it wasn't because I was being a bad person or anything. She said that she's trying to cram everything in because she doesn't know how long she has left. The chemo is starting to work, but the original plan was to have chemo every week but her body can't handle it so it has become more of a 'whenever her body can handle it' kind of situation. She's hopefully having chemo on wednesday but that means that she's going to be sick for christmas and all of her family is coming over from melbourne. She also said that she could last 7 years, but that would be a really big stretch because she would have to torture her body.

I'm so upset and I don't know what to do because my sister and I are so young and I don't think my dad will be able to cope because he loves my mum so much. Seven years is just too short.