Why 'support'?
We picked this topic for our YSI Project based on a classmate's experience. This is her story.
My name is Eden. I’m a fifteen year old student in Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary School, Rosbercon. The reason I decided to bring up the idea of support for our YSI is because my Mam was diagnosed with stomach cancer about 3 years ago. I took it very hard as I didn’t know much about cancer as I was only 12. I felt like my world had just came tumbling down and the only support I had was from family and friends. I didn’t like to talk to my family because they were also going through what I was going through. I didn’t like talking to my friends because they didn’t understand what I was going through or how to help me as much as they wanted to. It is very hard being a teenager when a family member is ill because you feel you have to grow up and mature an awful lot. I never knew how my Mam was going to feel on what day, you just have to go day by day and keep it together. I tried keeping in contact with my friends as much as I could but I always felt I was too busy trying to help around the house and keeping myself occupied. I also felt I had to put on a brave face so people wouldn’t know I was down. They could kind of tell I didn’t like talking about it because most of the time they didn’t know what to say and it gets kind of awkward so sometimes I just hid it. It is also very important you have support if you don’t feel like talking to friends or family. People are willing to be supportive, I just didn’t realize it. For example people would offer my Mam and Dad to give me and my brother lifts home from school, college, rugby etc. and for that we are grateful. When we looked into support we realized that there was not much support for the family of ill patients, it was mainly just for the sick patients themselves so we decided it was just as important for the family members as well as the ill patient themselves. So that is why we choose support for our Young Social Innovators project.