Dying but full of life

It’s a situation that we all hope never to face – a doctor breaking the terrible news that we have only months to live. Just the thought fills me with terror and I’m sure I would fall apart.

I know I would cry, I would rage at the injustice of it, and then I would hopefully try to make every day I had left count. I doubt that I would – like Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman’s characters in the hit movie The Bucket List – start travelling around the world, go on a road trip or start throwing myself out of aeroplanes to tick off my ultimate to-dos before I die.

But I’d hope to have the courage and nobility of terminally ill cancer sufferer Dianne Freeth, who decided that instead of a funeral she would organise a party to celebrate her life. Given just six months to live, she invited all her loved ones, friends, neighbours and even the nurses treating her to come to say goodbye. As she says in her story on page 26 it wasn’t a sad party – it was full of love and laughter and gave her the chance to say thank you to all the people who had touched her life.

I dare you not to be moved. Until next week,