Facing the death of your child and living with no regrets. A conversation with Gillian Sewell.
This week, oncologist Lucy Gossage has an open, extremely moving yet remarkably uplifting conversation with Gillian Sewell, whose son Lewis died of cancer in August 2020 aged 18. Lucy was Lewis’s oncologist and in this episode, Gillian shares her experience as Lewis’s mother.
In this episode, Gillian and Lucy discuss:
- What it was like to support her son through months of cancer treatment and then to be told it had stopped working.
- How Lewis crammed years worth of living into his final month. “I’m here for a good time, not a long time.”
- Watching Lewis turn into an adult during his treatment.
- Gillian's thoughts on how care for young people transitioning from paediatric to adult services could and should be improved.
- The parent - doctor relationship.
- What it’s like for an oncologist to tell a young person their treatment has stopped working.
This conversation may make you cry but it will also spark joy and help you to live.
“It’s so important during that time to live. No regrets. There’s no time for that. Live. If there was anything that I could actually share with someone who knows that their time is coming, be it a week, a month a year. No regrets. Live."
You may well come away from this simultaneously heartbreaking yet life-affirming conversation with a will to hug your loved ones closer and an urge to live your life more fully.
Thank you so much Gillian for your honesty.
Find out more about Walk for Lewis here:
https://www.rainbows.co.uk/events/walk-lewis-18-miles-18-years
Thank you for listening.