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In February of this year my brother aged 20, was diagnosed with leukaemia. We both lived in the same town at the time, whilst my Mum, three younger brothers, and baby sister live in another state. It was a massive shock to all of us, considering none of us ever knew of anyone who had been diagnosed, or passed away from leukaemia. He is a happy, healthy boy who absolutely loved boxing. It all happened so quickly, after a doctors appointment he was told there was a 90% chance of him having the cancer, and Mum was called straight away. I dropped everything to rush to another state to look after my three younger brothers, whilst she took my baby sister and herself to all the different hospitals he was at. Being nineteen years old, pregnant with my first child, leaving my partner, leaving my job, leaving my town behind for an unknown amount of time to look after my three younger siblings was very scary. I was out of my town in less than two days, flying on three separate planes to my Mums house. For the next 6 weeks I was to be there. In this time, I was being updated every day with news from Mum. How my brother was coping, what was happening, how he was going to be fixed. This was such a big roller-coaster of emotions for us all, and this was definitely the biggest responsibility I’d ever had. I’d take my two youngest brothers to school every morning and afternoon, pack lunches, clean the house, cook dinners, organise all the motherly stuff that needed to be done. In a way, I had to grow up real fast. In this time, in a different state, away from my partner, and all my other responsibilities, I was still attending doctors appointments and ultrasounds. It was in March that I found out I was expecting a baby girl, and I was so excited to tell my partner. We were both very sad that he couldn’t be here with me to find out, but this is what families are for. Sometimes you just need to drop everything and go, and this was one of those times. My brother didn’t choose to have cancer, it just was very unfortunate that it chose him. My Mum, three brothers and sister are now living in a Leukaemia Foundation house whilst my older brother is receiving his treatment. In only a few days he will be ‘”reborn”. He will have a bone marrow transplant which will be taken from my 17 year old brother. I’m praying that everything will be okay. I thank my Mum for being so incredible. She is an amazing sole parent to six children, and she has had a very tough life. If only I could make her understand how much I love her, and how much she means to all of us children. She is the definition of a perfect Mum. We hope that my big brother will be feeling better by late August/September this year. Unfortunately his boxing career has to end, due to the fact that he could potentially die if he gets hit. After all this is done, he will go back to living with Mum and my other siblings, so she can take care of him. I am now 30 weeks pregnant, and counting down the days till I can meet my baby girl. Life can be so cruel and unfair, but I know that our family can deal with this. We can beat cancer together.

Posted anonymously, 29th May 2014

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