WHY I RELAY
As a youngster, I feel as if I often see the eyes through tinted glasses, and I take things for granted that nobody should; life, family, friends. Just as much as the next person, however, I know how it feels to have these things torn away from me. Cancer is something I see effecting people around me, day in, day out. Currently one of my close friends has just found out his mother has cancer, and I can see how much he is hurt, worried and upset.
Despite all this, my main reason to relay is the loss of one of the greatest women I have ever met in my life, Sue S. At the age of 8, Sue came into my life. She was my mentor, working with me to iron out my problems as a youngster, to deal with the stress of home, the school, on a personal and judgement free level. On a near daily basis we would work on the next issue, and the next, but yet she never gave up, she never lost faith.
At the time I was too young to understand, at around the age of 9 and a half she started being in school less and less often. “She’s not well at the moment” they would say, trying not to alarm myself and her other “students”. She never let up her smile though, and back and forth she came, always seeming on top of the world, like nothing could stop her. Then, out of the blue, she was no longer there.
For an extended period of time she was out of school, and I had no chance to see her, but yet she still managed to find the time to write letters back and forth. She was fine she said, feeling great, and she’d be better soon. Once again, not knowing better, everything seemed as if it was going to be fine, and then she returned. This was the time she was receiving her treatment.
Back again, words cannot describe the feeling I felt that day, finally been able to speak to her and give her a hug again, but then I noticed something. Miss, I said, where's your hair? She assured me it was nothing, it was normal and the doctors had made her better. For around 6 more months she seem’d as if everything was ok, she was fine.
I left the school at the age of 11 to head off to high school, but yet we still exchanged letters back and forth, she was still there for me, despite the fact I was no longer her responsibility, still helping me sort my problems. Then came the day I’d been told she had fallen ill once again, but of course this time I understood far more what was really going on. She had breast cancer, and it was not looking good.
A few weeks after, I popped back into my old school to see all the old staff, everyone seemed as if something was wrong. I knew at that moment, Sue S had passed away to cancer, and at that point I realised what a destructive force it really can be.
This is why I relay, because I want to know that people like Sue don’t have to be taken away from us unfairly before their time, and so no adult or child has to experience the pain and heartbreak of finding out someone who means the world to you was gone, forever.
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