masterwordsmith-unplugged

The very mention of 'brain tumor' makes me shudder. When I was ten, one of my classmates stopped coming to school. A quiet girl, she was often scolded by our class teacher for being forgetful. Nonetheless, we got on fine and although we were not particularly close, I missed her company when she stopped coming to school. When we were told that hers was a terminal case, somehow it almost seemed as though the liveliness of the class had diminished considerably. A few weeks later she passed away and many of us were heartbroken.

One of my older cousin sisters also had a brain tumor. Born with a magnolia complexion, it almost seemed as though her cheeks were made of porcelain. Her slanted eyes gave her a very typical Chinese look and her charcoal black wavy hair only accented her beautiful complexion. I could never understand why she was often moody - sometimes friendly and other times aloof, quiet and yet almost morose. Yet, she used to surprise me for there were many occasions when my dad came home from work with unexpected presents from her which ranged from beautiful pieces of material for a dress, money or just little gifts which meant the world to little girls like me then. I never understood the circumstances of her death till two years ago when my aunts and her older sister had a tete-a-tete one evening after dinner. As we sat around the dinner table, I felt my hair stand as I could almost feel her presence when my aunt explained how the brain surgery was not successful and she passed away.

This evening, I came across this article in The Daily Mail about 16 year old David Langton-Gilks. A schoolboy dying from a brain tumour has stunned his family with his bravery after responding to his terminal condition by saying, 'You can’t win them all.' 

David Langton-Gilks, who is just 16, said he has accepted he is 'stuffed' following a five year battle against the disease. Up until five weeks ago David thought he had beaten the Medulloblastoma tumour but relapsed an hour after posting a video on YouTube telling the world he was recovering.

David's story is really very inspiring - at least to me. His courage is certainly a breath of fresh air to those who are in similar situations and to his loved ones.

Some people may not like the subject of death. However, whether we like it or not, we all have to die and the sad truth is incidences of cancer are more common than ever before. What should people do as loved ones, friends or as patients? The earlier we come to terms with that part of living the better.

It is easy to be in la-la land and wax lyrical about "snowdrops and daffodils, butterflies and bees" but the hard truth is when one is in that situation, it is not an easy road to travel.

For me, I would hope that people become more compassionate and ever ready to lend a helping hand to those in need and to be a pillar of strength instead of dwelling in another dimension of apathetic indifference or worse still, completely ambivalent to the fragility of life. Having lost many friends to the big C in the last few years, I know what a debilitating disease it is not to mention the challenging circumstances if a will has not been drawn up.

I am posting this article because it has important information about how children have the same risk of developing a brain tumour as meningitis.