After everything that happened with my grandad, I knew I wanted to raise as much money as I could for Cancer Research and the Macmillan nurses. At my grandad's funeral this is what the donations were put towards, but I wanted to raise money myself for such a great cause.
The cancer research charity is truly inspirational, and I want to help them towards being able to hopefully one day finding a cure to cancer. If fund raising events did not happen, my grandad would not have had all the help he did get, and my dad may not have been so lucky so this means a huuuge amount!
I decided I would take part in the annual 'Race for Life' in my hometown in 2010, with my mum, a friend of hers and my best friend. Before we had begun training and fundraising for this event, we had bad news..we had been on holiday the summer of 2008 as a family, and Dad hadn't been very well. He is one of those stubborn people that doesn't like going to the doctors...says that his body will just get on with it etc etc. In the end, mum told him he had to go and get checked out as he just wasn't himself at all, and I'm so glad she, well, forced him to go!
I was at uni at the time in my second year, and didn't actually know at this point that Dad had gone to the doctors, let alone been sent to the hospital for scans! Unfortunately, it was bad news :( Being at uni, mum didn't want to tell me over the phone nor tell my brother first, so didn't let on anything bad was going on. When I went home for a weekend, mum sat my brother and I down, and said she needed to talk. This never happens, I think the last time it had, was the talk about my grandad so I panicked..
My heart sunk once the word cancer had been mentioned. Everything kind of blurred, so mum had to keep repeating things as I just wasn't hearing straight. I knew that when we heard about grandad, he had 9months and I was praying that this would not be the same. Thankfully, mum had told dad to go to the doctors in enough time so that they could start treating the cancer that had been found. Although I was terrified of losing my dad, like I did with grandad, I had to stay positive, for everyone, especially my dad! He was so scared understandably and I hated being at my first year at uni and the fact that I couldn't see him every day. I came home as much as I could to help mum with everything and just to be of a support.
Dad started chemo and radiotherapy pretty much straight away to see if an operation was needed. Quite a big one was, but I still thought then what if mum hadn't told him he HAD to go to the doctors, what if...I am just so thankful for everything, that he was seen in time. I had time off from uni whilst dad had his operation but really didn't enjoy the time in which mum was the only one that could visit, me and my brother just sat at home hoping everything was going okay. Over the time that he was in hospital, I loved going to see him, keeping him company, just telling him what we had been doing that day, having a chit chat :) He told me loads of funny stories, and had become friends with people on his ward, even starting up a fantasy football type game! I never wanted to leave him because I hated seeing him in pain and looking worried.
Thankfully, with all the help of the doctors, Dad was given the all clear at the end of 2009, and could celebrate his 60th in January 2010.
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| Dad and I at his 60th party :) x |
This made me even more committed to raising lots of money, but also to have a great time doing it! We raised about £300 altogether, more than we anticipated, so it all felt really worth it!
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| Sarah, Tasha, Mum and me :) x |
Again, this year mum and I are going to attempt to run the Race for Life. It is so important for us, and I can't imagine us not doing it now after all that we have gone through.
If you would like to donate / sponsor us with any amount at all that you can, it would be greatly appreciated! :) www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/thebalmergirls
I hope everyone who has helped knows how thankful I really am! xx Thanks for reading! xx
My friends Emma and Danielle have also written posts on the same issue:
ahhh hunni, you are really brave :) I don't know what I would do if one of my parents had Cancer. I am so so glad he beat it! This charity is really important to me too so I will definitely be supporting you! xxx
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