Yeah. It was a, it was a bit different, I felt slightly different from my friends. When I was diagnosed and they all went off to university it was very hard then.
In which other ways did you feel different from them?
Just in the fact that I was jealous that I couldn't go as well [laughs]. I wanted to go off and I wanted to do the normal things that students do which could be good or could be bad [laughs].
I just wanted to have a normal life.
But this obviously was impossible.
But then joining this Teenage Cancer Group, do you want me to mention?
Yes, yes you can go ahead, you can say the name of the group?
The Teenage Cancer Group is TOPS, its Teenage Oncology Patient Support Group and through there its a charity affiliated to CLIC, Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood and they're based in [place] and joining that and meeting other friends and other people that have had the same experience as what I've been through has just been a life line, its just oh, I, most of my friends that I have met have had cancer and they will be friends forever.
When did you join them?
'97, the year after I was diagnosed I remember the first trip we went on, we went climbing down at one of the, St Warburg's Church in [place], it has a climbing centre, and going there and meeting other people was just, it was just amazing, I thought I was on my own but then if I meet other people and see, seeing what they're going through as well you realise you're not alone and that there are lots of other people, lots of other friends that you can make and -
So you did a lot of activities?
Yes.
Like climbing and?
Yeah, yeah we've done lots of, and people obviously, obviously we have our problems, we have different problems but they all seem to be very accommodating. It, it was just joining, joining the TOPS and it's just been a lifeline because I, I wouldn't have been able to cope on my own.
Okay who suggested to you, you join?
It was, it was my Social Worker at the hospital, she dealt with all my schooling and told my mother and father about jobs and various things. [Name] she was very, very good and she suggested that I join, join this group just to be able to meet other people that have been through the same things as you. And, I'm still there [laughs].
They have provided you with a lot of emotional support?
Yeah I've, I've never needed professional counselling because all my friends are my counsellors, we just, we just all, we talk about things that people would, can't believe we talk about like we laugh about the fact that we have no hair, we laugh about the fact that we can't do certain things. And, and I don't, you can't understand unless you've been through it and it's just been a life saver. |