Alisha - 12 years old

I was so upset and gave her a huge hug and tried not to cry but it didn't work. I was so angry as well that I punched the wall.

Hi my name is Alisha and my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2013 when i was 10. It was my last day of school because we were going into the summer holidays. My mum had gone to the hospital a couple of weeks before due to watching a program that made my mum think she should check herself. So she did and she found a lump in her breast and went to the hospital and they said it was just a cyst. They were wrong. As they thought it was a cyst they drained it out. But then my mum realized it hadn't worked and went back to have it checked. Turned out it was breast cancer.

My mum came and picked us up when it was time to go home and our school was one of them schools that had a service at the church at the end of the year. So when we came out i rushed to her and said "what did they say?

What is it? mum! mum! is it ......" she stopped me there thankfully. I didn't want to say the word. She said "ill explain when we get to Tesco" because we needed to go food shopping. " But i will say now its not what we hoped it was." Obviously i started crying and my mum gave me a huge hug to reassure me. So we walked to Tesco which was a couple of minutes away without saying a word.

Then she sat us down on a bench outside of Tesco and said "I know this is hard for you both but try not to cry. You know i went to the doctors today."

"yeah" i said

"well.... i don't know how to put this but it isn't a cyst it is breast cancer." That was it, i burst out crying. I have a brother and a sister, my sister was 1 so she didnt understand and my brother was 6 so neither did he really. So my mum gave me a big hug and eventually i stopped.

She had 4 lots of chemotherapy until they realised it was affecting her heart. All her hair had fallen out by then. So they put her on a new one for 4 lots. Then they put her on radiotherapy. Then herceptin.

Just when she thought it was nearly over she got a call. It had come back in her lungs. She found out october 2014. She didnt want to tell me but when she was crying i said i wouldnt leave until she told me. So she did.

I was so upset and gave her a huge hug and tried not to cry but it didnt work. I was so angry as well that i punched the wall. Sometimes i still get angry. Once i threw my phone at my wall and a little bit of the phone broke.

My mum has to have chemo for the rest of her life but she is coping at the moment.

I still cry when i walk past that bench.

That’s my story

Page updated 6 May 2015