Hi my name is Emilee and I am 15. My brother was diagnosed with a germ cell tumour in October of 2015.
When I was 11, on the 16th of October 2015 I went with my dad to take my 14 year old brother who had been suffering headaches for a CT scan.
After leaving the radiology place we went to pick my mum up from work because it was her birthday. The first thing I had to tell her was that I found out that day that one of my really good friends was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (A.L.L).
I was really shocked and scared
because I didn’t know anything about leukaemia except that it was bad. Just before we left the office the phone rang and it was the radiology people to tell mum that she had to take my brother to the doctor first thing in the morning because they found something on the scan. We weren’t really worried because we didn’t think it would be anything, boy were we wrong.
Just over 30 Hrs later my family was gone, I was staying with family friends and we didn’t know if my brother could be fixed or when I would be seeing them again.
My brother underwent brain surgery
as soon as they arrived at the hospital. He had a 5.5cm Intracranial Pineal Non-Germinomatous Germ Cell Tumour. Mum and Dad kept in touch but I didn’t feel like I knew what was going on. This was made worse by the fact that everyone was talking about him and us and asking me questions I didn’t have answers for.
A bit over a week after his first operation he had to have two shunts put into his head because the tumour caused a blockage in his brain. I couldn’t believe this was happening to us.
I didn’t see my family for 3 weeks during which time I moved between my Aunts house and our family friends. When I saw Damian for the first time after his two brain surgeries he looked scary. He had no hair, tubes coming out of his head and he just looked really different. Mum and Dad looked very tired and mum cried when
she saw me. I hadn’t ever seen my dad cry until that day.
Over the next five months mum and Damian were joined at the hip
sometimes in Sydney having treatments and occasionally home but somehow they always ended up in hospital when they were supposed to be home. I stayed at home mostly with different people. My Aunt, our family friends and sometimes dad but as often as I could on weekends or in the holidays I went to Sydney to spent time with Damian and Mum.
Damian got sicker and sicker as time went by
but mum and dad said his treatment was going really well and it was working. Not that it looked like it to me. In February 2016 Damian got pneumonia. He was rushed back to Sydney by air ambulance on the 21st of February and I was really worried. Once again my family was gone and I didn’t know what was going to happen or when I would see them again.
Over the next week Damian got worse. One day I was taken from school early by my uncle who told me we had to go to the hospital because things weren’t looking very good. The next time I saw my brother Damian he was on a ventilator in ICU.
It was horrible seeing him like that
I couldn’t look him in the eye. Everyone was so stressed and sad and I still didn’t know what was going on. Things continued to get worse. The next night they found out Damian had had a massive stroke and there was nothing they could do about it. The only thing I could say when Mum and Dad told me he was going to die was that his dreams won’t come true; I couldn’t believe he was going to be gone forever.
Damian died in hospital on the 1st of March 2016. He was 14 years and 8 months old and my big brother.
I want to raise some money to help my family donate £30,000 to help beat cancer.
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