My Glencoe challenge and why it matters so much.
This time next month I’ll be in a crumpled heap recovering from having completed (hopefully) a difficult 23 mile hike through Glencoe to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
I’m taking part in memory of my sister Sarah. Sarah died in January 2006, just a few days after her 32nd birthday. Only a month before she died she was being told by GPs and specialists that the excruciating pain she had been experiencing for months had no physical cause, until her friend (who’s walking with me) took her to A&E in agony and a doctor finally sent her for an MRI scan. They found metastatic tumours on her spine. After further investigations it turned out she had lung cancer (though she was never a smoker) which was so advanced that there was simply no hope of curing it.
I can still feel the shock and devastation of learning that my beloved big sister was dying of cancer, and the horror of having to tell my parents and the rest of my family. I can only imagine how much worse it was for Sarah, how frightened she must have been amid all the pain and confusion. When it became clear that Sarah had a very short time left to live, we arranged for her to move from the hospital to the Marie Curie hospice in Edinburgh. The team at Marie Curie were fantastic, I can’t begin to describe how grateful I am to them. They worked so hard to try and get Sarah comfortable, they treated her with the respect and love she deserved.
Sarah was a young woman with lots of friends who wanted to see her and say goodbye; the team at the hospice made this possible, and her close family and friends practically moved in to the hospice, taking turns sleep in the day lounge or sit by Sarah’s bed, making sure she was never alone. The nurses, doctors, volunteers, ALL the staff looked after us as much as they looked after Sarah, listening to our fears and helping us come to terms with what was happening.
Sarah died after just a few days in the Marie Curie Hospice. Sarah’s cancer was horrific, it ravaged her body and caused her intolerable pain, it was diagnosed too late for any treatment, and gave neither Sarah nor her loved ones time to understand what was happening; but in the end she died peacefully surrounded by people she loved. For that I will always be grateful, and for that I thank Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Please sponsor Sydny and I on our challenge, it really means a great deal.
