POSITIVE REAL LIFE
Nessie Gearing, 27, from The Scottish Highlands, wanted to give her mum the trip of alifetime after beating cancer...
Walking around the beautiful grounds of a temple in South Asia, there was someone that I just had to show.
Whipping out my phone, I quickly FaceTimed my mum, Kate, 69.
‘Look at this,’ Ibeamed, showing her the beautiful scenery around me.
‘Wow, that really is amazing,’ she replied.
For the past few years, my partner Becca, 27, and Ihad gone travelling for afew months of each year.
We had visited countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, too.
And wherever we went, I would call Mum every day.
Living at home with her, Becca and my dad Graham, 80, we were all very close.
So, Ialways liked to take Mum along virtually during our travels.
Iwished Icould take her along with us, but with our dog Isla and four cats Snowy, Woody, Biker and Bear, Mum didn’t really like being apart from them.
And in January 2022, Becca and Iwere planning to fly to Thailand for afew months.
Only when we were getting ready for the trip in December 2021, Mum had bad news.
She’d gone for aroutine mammogram and following her appointment, the doctors wanted to run more tests.
‘I’m sure it’s fine,’ she’d promised, as Dad took her to all her appointments. Mum had worked as a doctor for decades. She was avery positive person and nothing really phased her.
But hearing her talk about tests and biopsies, it rang alarm bells in my head.
Unlike Mum with her wealth of medical knowledge, I didn’t know anyone who’d had breast cancer –I was so worried. And one day in December, when Iwas on shift as aretail assistant at the community centre, Mum called me.
‘I want to tell you guys something later,’ she let it slip. It must be bad, I thought. The rest of the day was dreadful. Dealing with customers all day, at the back of my mind was the constant fear something was wrong.
And getting home, Mum and Dad sat me, Becca and my brother Patrick, 39, down.
FaceTiming my sister Nikki, 41, and brother, Chris, 33, they had news.
‘The doctors did find something,’ she said. ‘I have breast cancer and I’ll need surgery to remove it.’
Oh my gosh, it’s really bad, I thought in shock.
There were alot of tears from me and my siblings, but Mum stayed strong.
Although Icould tell she was upset that we were upset.
And going away to Thailand in just a few weeks, Becca and I didn’t know what to do.
‘No! You should go,’ Mum was adamant. ‘It’s fine, I see this all the time at work.’
And Becca was equally worried –her and Mum were also very close.
Hopping on the plane in January 2022, Iwould
