After spending a few days with stomach pains, and the doctor being unable to help, I ended up down in emergency in the middle of the night because I couldn’t sleep.

"This is where it gets blurry"

Everything was happening so fast and after taking blood for tests looking for appendicitis, they pulled mum aside and when she came back in crying, I knew it couldn’t be good. I’m not sure if it was minutes or hours, but I was eventually transferred to the children’s hospital.

It’s funny the things you do remember, because dad had met us at the hospital, and followed the ambulance I was in to the hospital. One of the clearest memories was while we were stopped at a set of lights, dad reached into the glove box and pulled out some lollies, I knew that they had been there for many months and were now rock hard, mum and I had a good laugh because he, did not.

Throughout the whole experience, I’m not sure if I was trying to do it, but I ended up shutting out most of the negative stuff that happened in the first few weeks, and now I focus on all the good, all be it small things that happened.

Like my first night, I was put in a room with another guy, about my age, and his father, and I know, talking to him helped mum, and me prepare for what was ahead.

"Life got hard over the next 6 months"

Some intense chemo kept me out of my new high school, and being the bald weird kid, didn’t help making new friends. I missed all my old friends who had left to move onto new schools and ended up struggling on my own for a long time.

"Things did work out though, bit by bit."

I had a moment of panic once after moving onto a late part of my treatment, when my newly grown hair, started falling out again. I was a bit annoyed that the doctor hadn’t told me this but after running out of class and calling him, I was reassured that this was normal and some people did lose their hair again.

The next time it grew back, it was for good (well, until I get a bit older and follow my father’s hairline). I had made new high school friends, and throughout CanTeen, I had also met some new friends who knew what I was going through. It helped a lot but I still had trouble fitting in around some people.

It was almost like I had become more mature than some of my friends, and talking to others who I had met in hospital, they felt the same thing.

"Being forced to grow up so early was one of the hardest things"

I have ever done, but I look back from where I am now, and I know that all those experiences made me who I am today, and that without them, I wouldn’t be me. Some people do find it weird when I talk about such a negative thing in such a positive light, but part of maturing early is what has made me do that.

Looking at everything I have learnt and gained kept me going during those hard days in the hospital or at home alone, and they are the things that keep me going to this day.