Charlotte’s Brain Tumour Journey 18.2.1997 – 24.2.2016 Diagnosis to death: 951 days 10 years ago today 22.12.2015 we are back at The Marsden for a physiotherapy assessment. It was noted that Charlotte now has a wide-based gait. When turning, she needs to move slowly as she tends to lose her balance. Her balance is moderately reduced, though she is able to stand with her feet slightly apart. We also saw her consultant, who felt that her facial palsy is worse than it was five days ago. Charlotte herself is aware that her speech has changed. On returning to the car, Charlotte put her head on my lap and cried, “I don’t want to die.” I couldn’t answer her not because I didn’t care, but because there were no words that could make it better. Please RT TY charlottesbag.org/

I miss my daughter. Charlotte died on 24th February 2016. She was just nineteen years old. She died in a coma. Some people say it was a long time ago. For me, it will always be yesterday. Before cancer, we shopped for clothes. After diagnosis, we shopped for wigs. We used to love eating out together. After thirty-two days of radiotherapy, Charlotte couldn’t eat at all. You were frightened of needles once. Then blood tests became weekly. Cancer took that fear away, it took so much more too. After diagnosis, life was never “normal” again. Hospitals became your world. Endless chemotherapy. Endless waiting. Yet every week, you bought me flowers. Now I buy the flowers. Every week. And I take them to where you rest. Glioblastoma is a terminal grade 4 brain cancer. There is no cure. In her final weeks before the coma, Charlotte was stripped of everything  her speech, her mobility, her independence, her dignity. Glioblastoma does not pause. It does not compromise. It does not stop until it kills. My son and I have worked tirelessly since  raising awareness, raising funds, telling Charlotte’s story so that she is not just a statistic, and so that one day another family might hear different words. I miss my daughter. And I always will. Please RT Thank you charlottesbag.org/