A Time To Reflect On Life

When Fran was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was the family’s main breadwinner, so they knew it was going to be a tough time financially. Fran’s treatment wasn’t straight forward either as she had severe side effects, ending up in hospital with viral meningitis, a chest infection and shingles.

In addition, she ballooned in size as a result of the steroids and became depressed because she looked and felt so awful. Little wonder then that her young children were so badly affected and this was what upset Fran the most.

Isla, her youngest was only three years old when she was diagnosed. However, now aged five, Isla is old enough to worry whenever her mum goes for a check-up. The eldest, Max, now aged 10, found Mum being so ill incredibly distressing. He struggled with sleeping and couldn’t bear Mum to be out of his sight. He panicked every time she went to the doctors and ended up having extensive counselling.

When the opportunity came up for the family to go on a Center Parcs break, through 4 Cancer, Fran jumped at the chance. The respite break was a great way of helping her and her family start to rebuild their lives.

Fran said:

“This holiday was a special holiday for us. It was a time to reflect on life and our family after what we had been through. The treatment for cancer can be very grueling; it had a huge effect on my family and especially my children, and for me it has taken a while to get over as I have suffered bad side effects. 4 Cancer gave us the chance to have a family break and not think about cancer anymore and we are now moving forward. I can’t thank 4 Cancer enough for giving us the opportunity to have this holiday. We feel it was a wonderful gift and it made us feel lucky to still be able to have a break together as a family. Thank you.”