My Dad never, never came in to see me at hospital. Not at all. He was never there. And my brother, my brother and my Mum would find out about everything, and then I'd find out about it a bit after or something, or if they're not there, I'd find out first, and they'd call Mum or something and let her know. But I'd always find out what's going on, and how I'm getting along, and the treatment and everything, so I was up to date on everything.
And how did it affect the family - you becoming ill?
Well, it kind of brought ourselves together, because there was lots going on at home at the same time, with my dad, kind of thing, and now he's moved out, but at the time, there was a lot of, like, conflict in the house, and I think, me having cancer, gave a new sort of, new light to everything, and rather than everyone been so, they had more stress from me being ill, but I thought it was kind of a good thing, because it pulled everyone together, made everyone realise that it's more important than just arguing and stuff. And everyone sort of, sort of… I don't know, looked at everything in a different way. It changed things the way they were.
So, more positive?
Yeah. It was. I found it was more positive than it was negative, having cancer.
And how did you feel? How did you feel with the support that your family gave you?
It was good. It was, I felt, I felt at least there's someone there. Well, my family are really religious and stuff, and everyone in my, like all the ladies and stuff, they're always doing fasts and everything, and my aunties, all of them did, like a fast for me, and they carry out, like, ten day fasts, or two month fasts or whatever, and my mum did some, my grandma did some, my auntie did some. I've got relatives in India who did them as well, when they found out about it. And everyone was really supportive to me. They were, like, really worried at first, and then they realised how, that I was getting along with it okay and everything, and give them hope as well, and they prayed for me all the time, and, and was really nice about it. I felt better.
So part of the religious rite was fasting?
Yeah. Sort of thing. You fast, like, there's always fasting and stuff going on, like for, like, different, on a Tuesdays or Mondays or Sundays, there's always like a day fast for different purpose, but one of my aunties, she did, like, a two-week fast for me, for the purpose of me to get better. So that was really nice. And Mum did it every, I think it was every Saturday, or every Tuesday or whatever, and it was probably good to show that they cared.
Which religion?
Hinduism. |