Chelsea - 14 years old

I stuck my head round the door in the room mum was in, and she looked really ill. I couldn't understand what was happening - one minute my mum was fine and the next she was ill.

I remember coming home from school one night and my dad telling me my mum was very ill. He told me that mum has to stay in hospital because what they thought was a cyst was ovarian cancer. One day mum's stomach started to get bigger; she looked like she was having a baby. So she went to the doctors and they arranged for her to have a scan, when she had the scan they said it was a cyst.

So not long after mum went to get the cyst removed, but it was not a cyst it was cancer. I just froze - I did not know anything about cancer and I worried about mum. Me and my dad went down to the hospital that night, I stuck my head round the door in the room mum was in, and she looked really ill. I couldn't understand what was happening - one minute my mum was fine and the next she was ill. She was laying in bed will a mask over her face and a drip, my dad was leaning over her bed crying. She had lots of nurses around her and I think she was on a life support machine. She just looked at me, I burst into tears and ran away from the room. My nanna was there too, so she came after me and we spoke a bit about what was happening. I couldn't take it in - I didn't understand - I was so confused and I still am.

Then my dad came out and when we got home he told me that a doctor had got him in a room and explained to him about mum. He said to me and my nanna that the doctor said mum wouldn't last the night. I cried and cried and that night I couldn't sleep, I just kept looking at the stars. The next day I didn't go to school, and we went back to the hospital to see mum, and I couldn't believe my eyes when she was sat on the chair next to her bed reading the newspaper, but she still had her drip.

Soon after she had treatment which made her hair fall out. She had to wear a wig since she was diagnosed in 1999, she has been in hospital three times and has been in the hospice for extra care. She has had treatment twice, the 2nd one not so long ago. She is always tired even when she has not had the treatment. She also gets a lot of bubbling and pain in her stomach, she has to wear a bag on her stomach as she can't go to the toilet. She has been through so much and so have I. I have been referred to someone who can talk to me about mum's illness. And she says she is worthless which upsets me, because she is not. I just hope mum gets better so we can all get on with our lives.

Page updated 18 July 2012