Hello everyone, Katie's dad and mum here. It's with great sadness that we have to tell you that we lost our beautiful Katie last Wednesday morning. It happened peacefully, and she was surrounded by her family, we held her hands and kissed her goodbye.
Many people have asked about what happened since Katie's last post so here's an outline.
At the end of July Katie was moved to a new chemotherapy regime as the previous one was no longer working. After several rounds she was starting to need regular transfusions of blood and platelets. This came to the point where chemo had to be put off to give her bone marrow time to recover, but further scans and tests showed that the cancer was progressing rapidly and her bone marrow would no longer cope with chemotherapy.
On Monday 27 August the doctor told us that further treatment would not be effective and that she likely had only 3-4 weeks remaining. This was shattering news--we had thought and hoped that Katie would have at least a few more months. Katie wanted to tell her friends herself (so we had to keep quiet about it for a while) and she managed to see some and give them the bad news. For some weeks she had been losing the use of her legs and now her arms were starting to go as well. She coped well with this loss of independence even though this was one of the things she feared most about being unwell.
On the morning of Wednesday 5 September she started to find it difficult to breathe despite everything the doctors tried, and we knew (and Katie knew) it was all coming to an end. We gathered around, holding her hands, rubbing her feet, kissing her and talking to her while she struggled to breathe. All she could do at this point was gently squeeze our hands, look at us and try to speak. It was all over very quickly and our Katie was gone.
The funeral was held on Monday 10 September at 4:30 and attended by many family, relatives and friends, school colleagues, previous teachers, nursing staff and medical staff, climbing buddies, and others. It was an opportunity where we remembered Katie with sadness and joy. We will provide another blog containing the reflections and readings on another post.
We thank all her friends (especially those Katie connected with through social media) for their kind words and tributes.
-Katie's Mum and Dad
Oh Gen. Thinking of you all .. what else can we do but think how it would be to lose a beloved child? but of course we can't imagine it. Katie's funeral was wonderful - dignified, truthful, and there was a real sense of celebration. This is often said at these times but in Katie's case it was so true.
ReplyDeleteTo Katie's parents - from a stranger:
ReplyDeleteI never met Katie - I only stumbled across her blog by accident while researching a drug, for work reasons, but something about it caught my attention, and I've followed it for most of its duration.
I didn't need to meet her, though, to be able to glean from these pages that she was a bright, intelligent, courageous, inspirational and strong young woman, whose spirit shone through her words.
It was obvious throughout that she felt as supported and loved by you as it was possible to be.
Quite simply, she was a credit to your love.
She has gone far too soon, but you can remember for the rest of your lives what an amazing daughter you had.
Love and best wishes to all of your family and friends, in Katie's memory.
from Martin
I followed Katie avidly and we talked often on Twitter. I can't believe I only found out about this today.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that if a joyful personality can shine through simply from a Twitter account, Katie proved that you an touch many people's hearts even if you never meet them in real life.
I'm super sad to only find out about this ... but I am happy to know Katie was surrounded by her loved ones at the end.
To those of you who knew Katie, you have my heartfelt wishes. I only wish I got to know her as well as you did.
Ben Eltham
New Matilda