Hi all
I lost my only son just over 2 years ago after a 6 year battle with brain cancer, he had a very rare brain tumour around 1 to 2 per year in the UK.
He as only 15 years old when he first became ill, before that he had been a fit healthy child. if i told you the full story it would take about 5 pages but briefly over them 6 years my son had cardiac arrests, collapsed lung, many operations some over 9 hours long, chemotherapy and radiotherapy loads of times, a tracheostomy fitted to project his chest and a brain shunt because of pressure building up on his brain and once lost 4 litres of blood right in front of me, i could go on and on.
He was in all the local papers and radio and even the main story on local news, he also became the first person outside the USA to have radiotherapy twice on the brain stem plus he won a national little star award from cancer UK in recognition of his bravery.
Me and the wife became Michaels full time cares, he became badly disabled and in a wheelchair, we had to learn so much, i can’t believe we went from being scared of even seeing a hospital to the point we could look after a tracheostomy, use so many medical machine’s at home and in hospitals and in the end changing bags, full of brain fluid.
In all the years me and the wife never left Michaels side living next to his bed in the neurosurgery ward or intensive care at alder hey children hospital, the longest stay being 5 months and when i was first told my special son had cancer, i went 4 days and nights without sleep and finally it got to the point i couldn’t understand what people were saying to me, in fact me and the wife went years with very little sleep, its amazing what you can get use to.
We was told so many times that Michael was not going to make it , from he won’t last the night to he’s only got 2 weeks but he fought back from the brink so many times, we never lost hope and thought god would answer our prayers and we would have a miracle.
But sadly on 12th August 2010 my brave sons body just couldn’t take anymore and he died in my arms at home, i saw him come into the world but as a parent i never thought i would see my lovely special guy leave this world, i miss him so much.
As you would imagine life since our son died as been hell, infact there’s no word to describe how bad its been for us and still is.
We can’t go out anywhere that we’ve been before with our son or see anything on TV that we had all watched together, for months me and the wife didn’t put the TV on.
Then one day i turned the Television back on and last of the summer wine was on and i smiled for the first time in months.
Since then me and the wife have watched every episode at night time in bed, we now sleep in the front room can’t face it upstairs and for the time being when we watch it we forget our sad lives and smile we have been through every series so far twice and we are again up to series 17 for the 3rd time.
I would thank everyone involved in making this fantastic comedy because for 30 minutes or hours depending on how many episodes we watch, two people who have been battered by life smile again even if its for a short time.
Also we haven’t been out properly for over 2 years but on my 50th we went to Holmfirth and had a great day, seeing all the sights in the show and we smiled again just for the day and if we ever get the chance we will move there.
All the best, Graham
I lost my only son just over 2 years ago after a 6 year battle with brain cancer, he had a very rare brain tumour around 1 to 2 per year in the UK.
He as only 15 years old when he first became ill, before that he had been a fit healthy child. if i told you the full story it would take about 5 pages but briefly over them 6 years my son had cardiac arrests, collapsed lung, many operations some over 9 hours long, chemotherapy and radiotherapy loads of times, a tracheostomy fitted to project his chest and a brain shunt because of pressure building up on his brain and once lost 4 litres of blood right in front of me, i could go on and on.
He was in all the local papers and radio and even the main story on local news, he also became the first person outside the USA to have radiotherapy twice on the brain stem plus he won a national little star award from cancer UK in recognition of his bravery.
Me and the wife became Michaels full time cares, he became badly disabled and in a wheelchair, we had to learn so much, i can’t believe we went from being scared of even seeing a hospital to the point we could look after a tracheostomy, use so many medical machine’s at home and in hospitals and in the end changing bags, full of brain fluid.
In all the years me and the wife never left Michaels side living next to his bed in the neurosurgery ward or intensive care at alder hey children hospital, the longest stay being 5 months and when i was first told my special son had cancer, i went 4 days and nights without sleep and finally it got to the point i couldn’t understand what people were saying to me, in fact me and the wife went years with very little sleep, its amazing what you can get use to.
We was told so many times that Michael was not going to make it , from he won’t last the night to he’s only got 2 weeks but he fought back from the brink so many times, we never lost hope and thought god would answer our prayers and we would have a miracle.
But sadly on 12th August 2010 my brave sons body just couldn’t take anymore and he died in my arms at home, i saw him come into the world but as a parent i never thought i would see my lovely special guy leave this world, i miss him so much.
As you would imagine life since our son died as been hell, infact there’s no word to describe how bad its been for us and still is.
We can’t go out anywhere that we’ve been before with our son or see anything on TV that we had all watched together, for months me and the wife didn’t put the TV on.
Then one day i turned the Television back on and last of the summer wine was on and i smiled for the first time in months.
Since then me and the wife have watched every episode at night time in bed, we now sleep in the front room can’t face it upstairs and for the time being when we watch it we forget our sad lives and smile we have been through every series so far twice and we are again up to series 17 for the 3rd time.
I would thank everyone involved in making this fantastic comedy because for 30 minutes or hours depending on how many episodes we watch, two people who have been battered by life smile again even if its for a short time.
Also we haven’t been out properly for over 2 years but on my 50th we went to Holmfirth and had a great day, seeing all the sights in the show and we smiled again just for the day and if we ever get the chance we will move there.
All the best, Graham
