I really wasn’t expecting her to come home and tell me that. To make it easier for me, she called my best friend and told her to come over.

When my friend arrived I was sitting in the park a block away crying. My friend rushed over and told me it was going to be okay and that we would get through it.

"That's how it was with most people"

“It’s okay. You’re allowed to cry.”  “Your mum is a fighter, she’ll be fine”. But, it seemed like they were trying to convince themselves.

Every day after mum’s initial diagnosis, I tried to make her happy and get her mind off it. I didn’t want to know about the medical side of it, so my contribution was to keep her occupied.

"It didn't always work though…" 

Mum had to have a mastectomy and we went shopping one day to find baggy t-shirts that covered her chest, weren’t low cut and protected her from the sun (as she was going through radiotherapy at the time).

We looked through all the women’s shops down the main street but mum was getting tired so we headed back to the car. On the way we passed a shop selling men and women’s clothes.

"I went in and found two men's t-shirts"

that I thought mum could wear while still passing for an attractive woman. I showed her the tops and she burst into tears, exclaiming that she felt like she was becoming a man.

What I’m getting at here is that I’m just a teenager. I can’t make her 100% happy 100% of the time. But I'm learning to become more positive and optimistic. It helps to talk to other people who are going through the same thing.

When they say "I know how you feel" – they actually do.