Sophie's Account

Jonathan's diagnosis came only a month or so after we had started going out, which could have potentially put an immense pressure on our relationship from its outset. It didn't at all however. The last 9 months have made us unbelievably close to each other. It's been a rough time for Jonathan. The fear of the unknown has been the worst part - waiting for results from scans and blood tests, which can take a few weeks are the periods which made me feel utterly helpless and sick with worry.

I know this sounds strange, as Jonathan was the one fighting the disease, but I wouldn't have got through the last 9 months as well as I did without his support. His total optimism and zest for life throughout this has been quite remarkable. Through his unconditional enthusiasm for life, I realised very early on in his ordeal that there is no point in worrying too much, as you gain nothing.

Right from the outset of his illness he has been incredibly positive. From his initial operation in January when he was wheeled down to theatre and said to his surgeon "let's have a ball!", to the first week he was in hospital for chemotherapy and I saw him dancing down the ward pulling his IV drip along, to the major surgery he had in July when, despite not being able to eat or drink for 5 days, he was asking the nurses for pizza and Guinness, he has been a shining example in how to stay so positive when you are hit with one of the most frightening diseases our world knows.

The last 9 months have been a long, hard road for Jonathan, his family, friends and myself. Cancer is such a feared illness the world over, something a lot of people find hard to confront, but the past 9 months have made me face it whether I like it or not, and it seems to have brought out a resilience in me I never realised I had. You just get on with it and accept it because you have to.

When Jonathan got the news that the tumour they took out of him had been killed off by the chemotherapy, I felt the weight of the world taken off my shoulders… I can barely begin to describe the relief, and in such good time, as his 27th birthday was the following day. This feeling of relief was 100 times greater in early October when Jonathan received the news we’d all been hoping for… that he was finally in remission, and we could well and truly put the strains of the last 9 months behind us.