Member Story - Rachel Gilbert
A
Letter from Rachel Gilbert:
Hi my GIST friends. My name is
Rachel Gilbert. I am 18 years
old and I live in St. Ives,
England.
My family includes my mum, Julie; my dad, Phil; and my
brother, Daniel, who's 16. We're
a very close family, made
stronger by my illness.
I’ve had GIST for 3 1/2 years, since I was 15; I was
diagnosed on the 23rd December
(not the best date to pick). I
was also in the middle of my
last year of school and 5 months
away from my final exams (In
England the school system goes
to 16 and then you have your
Gcse exams, which are your final
exams). They announced my
diagnosis in a school assembly
to make sure that everyone had
the facts. My oncology nurse
went to talk to them. I knew
about it beforehand and thought
it was a good idea, instead of
people not being sure about it
and making rumours. My friends
didn’t react very well.
When I started Glivec it hit me very hard, starting on
400mg. Slowly I have been moved
up and down and up again and now
I’m on 800mg. And stable.
I didn’t manage to get to school anymore and didn’t
complete all my exams. I was
upset about not going to school.
I felt like I was missing out on
having friends and socializing
and now years later it upsets me
a lot because I feel like I’ve
missed out on my childhood and
part of growing up.
I was also very surprised to find out that who I
thought were best friends,
didn’t want to know me anymore.
They were upset to start with,
but later they didn’t know how
to talk to me, so I lost touch
with some of them. Then when I
didn’t go to school anymore, I
didn’t see them either and they
never made contact themselves. I
did think they were good friends
but now when I look back I think
they weren’t as good as friends
as I had thought they were and
they didn’t care as much as I
would have hoped friends would.
This made me feel very lonely
which hasn’t gone away to this
day. I don’t see any of my old
friends and haven’t for 3 years.
This has made me lose my
confidence, I think because I
wasn’t around people and haven’t
had friends so now I feel
nervous when I go out even to
simple things like the hair
dressers, I didn’t use to go out
in case I bumped into any of
them but I’m now determined to
make new friends. And for the
last year or so I’ve started
doing more including singing in
our local church, which I love,
I’ve also got a part time
job as a secretary in a post
office/parish centre, I work 3
mornings a week when I’m well
enough and I’m taking driving
lessons. I’m so excited because
my driving instructor said I can
do my test soon. Yippee.
Before I was ill I was an elite
gymnast for England which I
really enjoyed. I won 11 gold
medals and several silver and
bronze. I competed for England
in Malta; I went with my coach
and another gymnast which was
really exciting. I won and was
told (I didn’t see it) that I
was on Eurosport, which is a
sports channel in England. I
trained 6 days a week, 4 hours a
day with competitions on the 7th
day and my gymnastics club was
an hour drive away. I can still
just about do the splits which
I’m very proud of.
So, why me? Why an extremely fit and healthy 15 year
old girl? Do you know what?
Every time I think that, I
think, why not me? What makes me
so special above everyone else
that I shouldn’t get ill? I’ve
always stayed positive; I love
life.
Cancer is a very big part of me but I’m not going to
let it hold me back. My dream is
to be a famous singer which I'll
try my best to achieve.
Since I’ve been diagnosed my Gist has stayed stable on
the Glivec and shrunk once, so
I’m very lucky.
My family, especially my mum, have been a huge support
and I don’t think I would be
able to handle it without them,
they've all been amazing.
In my first year of having cancer I met an amazing boy
called Stuart who had been ill,
not with GIST, but had been ill
for 7 years. Sadly, he died aged
only 15, along with many other
young people who had been
diagnosed at around the same
time as me. Stuart showed such
courage and bravery and I hope I
can be as brave as he was.
I think good things to do when your ill is to stay
positive, which I know can be
hard and to talk about your
fears and worries and if you
fancy having a cry, do it, it
feels much better when you've
had a good cry. Do things that
you want to do when you’re well
enough and live life to the
fullest everyday. And most
importantly: SMILE. I’m doing it
right now.
Thanks to everyone at the Life Raft for their support
and a wonderful pediatric
meeting. And thanks
to my brilliant family.
Love you guys.
Rachel xx
This article was reprinted from the September-October 2005 issue of the Life Raft Group newsletter.
