Are you cosy and carefree??? Well, keep imagining. Two weeks before the end of holidays, before the mad rush of booklists, new shoes, dusting off and repairing your uniform, out of the blue you find out some horrible news: your mother has just been diagnosed with Leukaemia.

"What does this mean? Will mum be ok?"

Little do you know but your life will completely change. Your friends don’t know what to do or say and your mother is no longer there, she is not at home to help you, to listen to you, to pick up your clothes, well to even wash your clothes, to prepare a meal, to drive you to your dance class, to talk to your teacher, to get your lunch. She’s there yet she seems so far away, you can’t even hug her!

You are introduced to your new best friend, the hospital. You soon learn to cope with the funny smell, the sight of other sick people and crazy terminology, it’s a whole new world. You can’t see your mother very often because she is in isolation, and so far away. In hospital she under goes total body intravenous chemotherapy for a month and can only come home for short breaks.

"You get used to her looking completely different"

and being so weak and frail that she can only shuffle from the bed to the toilet and nothing else, even though you see her trying really hard to make an effort.

Eight months pass of this tough, brutal and seemingly endless cycle, however you finally receive some good news. Your mum is in ‘remission’.  The family celebrates with a holiday to Queensland.

Two months later, the day after your 10th birthday, and still basking in the joy of your mother’s remission, your parents sit down with you and your family and tell you the cancer has returned.

"How do you feel?? Who is there to support you??"

Later that week, you are told that your mother has two options: to go into Palliative Care to die, or to have a Bone Marrow Transplant.  With the doctor’s insistence and guidance, your mother is straight away prepared for a Bone Marrow Transplant.

The transplant takes another two stressful and anxious months from your mother’s life. After this your mother is allowed to move from the hospital isolation room to the room prepared especially for her at home. She tentatively makes her first anniversary and

"the four years that follow this seem just as hard" 

At least twice a year your mother is admitted to hospital, due to the problems that are caused by having her transplant; often being away for months at a time with serious and life threatening complications. Once again you learn to cope, like you have learned to cope with your life changing, your friends changing and yourself changing.  This is a constant reminder of how lucky your mother is. And you are thankful everyday that your mother is alive, you can hug her, talk to her, and spend time with her, because these are the things that are really important in life.