A few days before my 12th birthday, my mom, Ann, was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. It was SO difficult to watch her get sick and lose her hair and not be able to eat for days.
Mom went through chemotherapy treatment for a year and then had a mastectomy and radiation treatment for about another year. It was a long, grueling process for our whole family, but we learned and we grew from it.
In December 2009, about two years after Mom had been done with treatment, she went back to the doctor because she was experiencing some pain in her sides and abdomen. It turns out that the cancer not only had come back, but it had spread to her lungs and her liver as well.
The sad thing is that Mom hadn't smoked for thirty years, and she was one of the best people I knew in terms of constant volunteering and kindness towards everyone.
After five months of struggling against the disease, Mom passed away in April 2010. It was so hard for our entire family. Mom had always been the one who told us what to do when we didn't have any idea, or the one who encouraged us when we needed it most. For me in particular, I didn't realize how important those last few months of caring for her were until I didn't have her anymore.
Now I'm seventeen years old, and I don't have my mother. Sometimes I call her cell phone and leave her messages to tell her what's happening in our family, that my sister just got contacts, or just that I miss her. Sometimes I write her letters.
I hope that nobody else ever has to go through what I went through. We HAVE to find a cure.
Clarendon Hills, IL