I'm 15 at the moment but when I first found out my mum had cancer I was 12. My mum had already stopped having periods but suddenly started losing lots of blood and as soon as I found out I urged her to go to the doctors. With everything going on at the time and as the months went on I forgot about it until just after Christmas, my mum told me she had ovarian cancer and had been diagnosed for a little while but hadn't told us because she wanted us to have a normal Christmas. I was gutted and terrified that I was going to loose my mum when I was so reliant on her.
On the 24th of January she had a hysterectomy in order to remove the tumour. She'd been messed around by the hospital and the tumour was days away from breaking through her uterus and spreading. Visiting her was so scary for me so I can only imagine what it was like for her.
She went on to have chemotherapy for 3 months and radiotherapy everyday for a month and the whole experience was awful seeing someone I cared so much for being so ill.
At the time I felt super alone, nobody at school knew so I was going to school and acting the same as normal even though I was full of fear inside as everything I'd known collapsed. The school I went to was notified but did nothing to help despite their claims to be all about helping.
It was extremely difficult dealing with this and family members finding the illness too difficult for themselves so leaving us as a family very isolated during this time.
Its been two years now since she finished her treatment and whilst they can't be sure she's free, there are no signs they can see of it spreading which is amazing news. Despite the treatment being finished, they have left long lasting effects with the chemo having a long lasting impact on her immune system as well as the many things that have resulted from radio therapy now and ones we have been told could happen in the future.
Im posting here to let whoever is going through anything similar that you are not alone and you don't have to pretend that everything is ok. I know how much that would've helped me back then. I hope anyone who's being affected or knows anyone who's been affected gets through this and that one day no one has to suffer from this illness xx
