Hope:
posted by: Joan Vine | on: Saturday, 20 August 2022, 10:11
Unlike Linda, many children now go on to live long and happy lives
About sixty-plus years ago I worked with a lady called Kath, her and her husband had just one daughter called Linda. Kath was in her early thirties and I was in my teens. Because we worked next to each other, she would often talk to me and tell me things about her young daughter. On many occasions Kath would say how tired her Linda was when she returned home from school. I barely took this information in, although, it gradually occurred to me that Kath was becoming ever-more anxious about her sleepy daughter. Eventually Kath and her husband Steve took their daughter to the doctors and then the hospital where their nine-year-old was diagnosed with ‘leukaemia’ – Ugh! What’s that? I and our colleagues said - It’s a form of blood cancer said a very worried Kath… and so the story continued. Poor little Linda had to have blood transfusions, operations, x-rays, stays in hospital but nothing seems to work and eventually at the age of eleven Linda passed away. Kath and Steve were beside themselves with grief. But one day when Kath eventually returned to work, she turned to me and said that the doctors and told them that because they gave their permission for experimental procedures and medication to be given to their precious daughter, childhood leukaemia would be the first cancer to be made curable, and so it is. For many young people diagnosed with this awful illness, survive and go on to live long and happy lives, all thanks to desperate people like my friends, Kath and Steve… These words and memories were inspired and awakened by ‘Reflection’ in the Spring edition of ‘Connected’ Joan
Posted: 20 Aug 2022 | There are 0 comments
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