Hi. 

I have been with my boyfriend for 3 years now and his mum has been battling cancer since we met, for around 15 years in fact. She has recently been diagnosed with leukaemia and advised treatment isn't working. Treatment has stopped and she is now terminal. 

I have never had to deal with cancer in my family and struggle to know what to do and say, especially when they have been living the nightmare for almost his entire life. He is a typical 'bloke' and really struggles to talk about his emotions. He only ever opens up if he's had a drink and it then tends to be heartbreaking sobs and not much actual talking. I struggle to get anything out of him day to day, no matter how much I ask all I get is a 'I'm fine' and if I ask directly about how her illness is affecting him he's very dismissive. 

We're young (25) and I worry so much with the statistics of mental illness in young men going unnoticed that something bad could happen. I want to be there for him but I don't know how to get him to open up. It can't be good to wait till your drunk and then just explode right?!