By SARAH SWAIN
A MUM who lost her teenage daughter to bone cancer is facing her fears – to help other youngsters battling the condition.
Teacher Rosemary Gold is preparing to take part in the Teenage Cancer Trust’s zipwire challenge across the River Clyde next month.
Her daughter EmilyJane died in January when she was just 16 after a two-year fight with the disease.
But Rosemary and psychiatric nurse husband Graham, 48, of Kirkintilloch, hope to make life easier for other teenagers with cancer by raising hundreds of pounds towards a new unit the charity is building at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow.
It will allow teenagers like Emily-Jane to be treated separate from young children.
Rosemary said: “I’m quite happy with heights although it will be different when I get up there. The zipline is 130ft high and 1000ft long!
“Emily-Jane would have done it and she’ll think it’s great that I am. She was really keen for them to have the unit.”
When Emily-Jane complained of a sore knee, doctors told her she had pulled a muscle – then that she had flat feet.
But when Rosemary, who is also mum to Juliet, 12, demanded an X- ray at Stobhill Hospital the diagnosis was far worse.
Emily-Jane had a cancerous tumour in her leg.
Rosemary, who is a P4 and 5 teacher at Auchinloch Primary School, near Lenzie, said: “We went through all the emotions. I don’t think I could speak to anybody except my husband for about a month. But Emily-Jane said: ‘Lets get through this.'” The Lenzie Academy pupil had chemotherapy at Yorkhill and a successful operation to remove her tumour and replaced her knee with titanium .
She battled back and soon swapped a wheelchair for crutches.
Despite her gruelling treatment, Emily-Jane passed six standard grades with top marks and got involved with the Teenage Cancer Trust .
But sadly the cancer spread to her lungs and shortly after her 16th birthday a year ago the family were given the awful news that nothing more could be done.
Rosemary said: “I found it more horrific than Emily-Jane. She said: ‘I’ll be fine.’ She had even started walking home from school with friends rather than getting me to pick her up.
“She just kept smiling through it all. Emily-Jane continued to go out and have visitors until the 13th of January. And on the 14th she stayed in bed and died in the early hours of Tuesday 15th.
She was talking to me on the Monday and said: “It all makes sense now. I’m ready. I said, what for? And she said: ‘to shine.'” The Teenage Cancer Trust needs to raise GBP350,000 towards the unit for 13 to 16-year-olds at Yorkhill, which it hopes to open next summer.
To sign up for the zipwire challenge on Sunday, October 5, call Catriona Stewart on 07860 757274.
To sponsor Rosemary visit www. justgiving. com/rosemarygold
Originally published by Newsquest Media Group.
(c) 2008 Evening Times; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
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