[lisa40Participant]

Hi Scott

That’s spookily similar to kevs story except we were in Chester on holiday, he was in pain before the holiday but we went anyway. Whilst in the hotel he slipped on a step and was in agony, so was taken to the hospital and was told to see his GP at home. 2 broken vertebrae and an array of small fractures, told MM only after an amazing GP had the foresight to do the blood test. Kids have always just thought it was because he fell over and “dad has a bad back”. Since telling them their behaviour has been no worse than any other 7 and 9 year old pushing boundaries. Our son the youngest , bless him thought I’d said my loma! And so now refers to daddies aches and pains as ” is that your loma daddy!” They have never asked any questions, that’s probably because they trust us to tell them if things got worse. Support from neighbours and school is amazing. So thankfully for us it worked out “for the good”. Our son would love the wrist band but they don’t come small enough. Both kids take the buddy to bed every night.

I agree it’s a personal choice…and one that is incredibly hard to make. To tell or not to tell. I just wanted to let people know our story.

P.s. Kev is out on his bike and been out for 2 hours….loving life.

Lisa x

[lisa40Participant]

I am so pleased that this has helped you Alice, it’s a huge burden. Kev bought the book Kelsey and the yellow kite, from the information day.  It was kind of a back up in case my explanation was not that great ( I told them on my own, it seemed less serious that way) They have never asked to read it, I suspect that if or when Kev does have to start the chemo again, more questions will arise, so it’s good to know we have that as back up.  Our situation was actually more sensitive as kevs best friend died of  melanoma within the last month, so the kids knew about cancer related deaths, but our daughter (9) has a best friend who’s mam is 5 years on from non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, so she has positive too.  Who knows how they will react and hindsight is a marvelous thing. However telling the truth and saying the dreaded c word seems harsh and some people see it as not “protecting” the kids, but it’s the awful reality and whatever age we are we have to face it. I am positive that in the future our kids will be grateful they were included in the family good and bad times.
Fiona I’m glad you shared, kudos to your daughter, how brave she is, but again proves how resilient kids are. My son too is too young, he just wants to swap his match attacks, he is going into year 3, so younger than your daughter Alice and girls seem to absorb more. However you tell her, she will appreciate it in the long run.

Good luck and please feel free to contact before or after the event if you need to.

Lisa x

[Author]

Posts