As a cruel disease slowly laid claim to her mum, Katie Davies, 36, stepped up to raise her siblings
Tears filled my eyes as I arranged the Mother’s Day flowers in a vase. It was March 2023, I didn’t have children of my own, but my younger siblings, then aged 20 and 18, had given me these, and a card thanking me for everything I’d done for them.
Gestures like this always made me smile while also making me feel sad for our real mum – Fiona, 59. Mum has always done her best to be a part of Ted and Kia’s lives, but a cruel disease meant I’d been forced to step into her shoes when they were very young and I was just a teenager. Though they feel like my own children, and I know they see me as a second mum, I’ve never wanted to replace our mother.
I was 17 when I heard Mum whispering to her brother about a medical test. ‘What are you talking about?’ I asked.
‘I’ve noticed Aunty Alison struggling to find the right words, making jerky movements and stumbling,’ she replied, explaining they were early symptoms of Huntington’s disease.
‘That’s what Grandad had,’ she added. It was hereditary, and there was a 50% chance that she and her non-identical twin sister – my auntie Alison – had inherited the gene.
Grandad had died many years before, aged just 56. Growing up, our Saturday afternoons had been spent visiting him in a home, where he’d been bed bound – unable to walk or talk. Now, the thought of Mum ending up like Grandad and going through what he’d experienced terrified me.
Mum and Auntie Alison both got tested and meanwhile, Mum’s friends rallied round. She’d known her best friend Jacqueline, as well as her sisters Janet and Gail and partner Zilla, since they were teenagers. Zilla - a nurse - explained the disease in simple terms for me. It was a genetic disorder that would cause progressive damage, leading to physical, cognitive and emotional changes.
BEING PREPARED
When Mum and Alison’s results came back positive a few weeks later in 2005, I was distraught, as was Mum. But I forced myself to be strong for Ted and Kia, who were still so young. Mum was a single parent and I already helped out a lot.
‘When I get worse, please look after them for me,’ Mum pleaded. I didn’t like to think about her getting poorly, but my answer was instant. ‘I’ll do everything I can to keep them with me,’ I promised. It was heartbreaking, but
