On our way home in the car we discussed how we should tell our children about what we were to face as a family. My daughter was 13 and my son 12, so they were at such vulnerable ages in their lives to have to understand this.
Before talking to them, we decided it would be best to see a Psychologist who knew both children from doing an educational assessment on them at an earlier age.He could advise us on how to break the news to them without causing fear and trauma.
In hindsight, having seen what they did, they were affected anyway no matter how hard we tried to make it easier... but I will discuss that later.
My husband Craig is a fantastic cook, and a legend amongst our friends and family. Food is the heart of our home so the Psychologist's advice was, prepare some comfort food and tell them in an environment where they can express their feelings and find comfort.
So we laid out all the lovely snacks and treats and told the kids we had something important to discuss with them. We were advised to tell the truth about what I would be facing over the next few months. The loss of weight, possible loss of hair, vomiting and the loss of my voice.
My daughter, Tayla, burst into tears at the mention of Cancer as my husband held her tight but neither of them asked whether I could possibly DIE, so we decided not to go there.
My son, Jarrett, listened with tears in his eyes and when we had explained everything, he asked, " Can we talk about something else now!"
That was our cue. The war had begun!
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This photo was taken the day before my gland operation by a friend of mine who is a photoghrapher.
I asked her to take these photo's of us as I had just been diagnosed a few days earlier and I was so uncertain at that stage of whether I would survive, I wanted these photo's for my family to remember us by.
We all had such fun at this photo shoot!
These photo's became our pride and joy and a symbol of our love, strength and endurance each time we look at them now
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