Hello everyone,
I am 23 and last month my mum passed away from metastatic breast cancer. She was diagnosed with stage 2 in 2021 and treatment seemed to be going really well, until we discovered that it has metastasised in the Autumn. Again targeted treatment seemed to be working very well, but we were told at the start of last month that it had spread even further. She opted to not have any further treatment and declined very rapidly afterwards, until she passed away less than two weeks later.
As selfish as it feels to say, I feel somewhat fortunate that I did not have to witness a prolonged, months long decline filled with pain that she could maybe have had to endure had she decided to continue treatment. Right up until 2 weeks before she passed she was up and about and was her usual self, and that is what I will remember. Perhaps if she had continued her treatment, I wouldn't have remembered her as her bubbly self.
Now I am faced with returning to university, to complete my final semester. The university has already provided extensions to my deadlines, and I know that if needed they can write off a couple of my assignments, but I feel somewhat nervous about pushing for this. There are days where I simply cannot face getting out of bed, and this is made worse by feeling like I am falling behind - particularly when I am so close to the end of my degree.
M x
