Gillian Walcott loses battle against cancer
Gi l l i an Walcott, t he t eenager whose battle with cancer was highlighted by THE STAR in December, has died.
Gillian died on December 20 last year at the age of 19.
On the ninth night after her passing, her family and friends gathered at her father’s house at Rhoden Crescent, Kingston 6.
With their minds enraptured with all her unfulfilled promises, they observed the shafts of light from the lit candles at the beginning of the vigil her father Wayne Walcott had organised, but couldn’t attend because he was too emotionally distraught.
“I couldn’t stay,” an emotional Walcott told THE STAR. “I did the preparation and everything but I couldn’t stay. Mi get too sad when mi think bout her.”
Gillian battled chondrosarcoma, a type of cancer composed of cells derived from transformed cells that produce cartilage.
She fought well throughout the 13 months the illness debilitated her body, according to the nurses who attended to her.
PURSUE HER DREAMS
In the last month before she passed, she reached out to THE STAR for assistance to bring awareness to a GoFundMe account she had set up to raise money to finance her hospital bills which were ballooning.
She told THE STAR she still had hopes of continuing to pursue her dreams of going to university and becoming a registered nurse, even though someone had whispered to her that the doctors had done all they could.
“I think I am going to make it through,” Walcott said at the time.
At the vigil, her sisters, Monique and Kaycean, among others reflected on the things Gillian wanted to do.
“I know she always wanted to be a nurse and always put her best out,” Kaycean said. “I always say if you don’t see her with the [swollen] knee, and the pain that she was in you would not know what she was going through because her spirit was so high.”
Monquie said: “Gillian was the nicest person. She got seven subjects and was going places. She was daddy’s favourite and would deal with all of his transactions and sit and reason with him dem way deh.”
Their father, a Rastafarian, told THE STAR that the last time he saw Gillian alive, the cancer had eaten away at her so much that he had to turn to the heavens for help.
“I was talking to her and telling her that I love her, but she didn’t respond so mi step aside and started praying to Jah for her to wake and say something and she wake up and everybody surprise,” he recalled. “We start feed her some Ensure and she just drink it, but she didn’t say anything and after that she lay down back and that was it.”