I've had Cancer....
I have been diagnosed with Cancer twice in my life (I am 23) and had nine aggressive sessions of Chemotherapy. I have seen this film before I first got Cancer and twice after - I have to say the hardest was after I had my own experiences. Everything Dr. Bearing went through, so did I. The sickness, the fevers, the sweats, the anxiety, etc. Those beautiful moments in the film when Dr. Bearing would lie in her room, in complete silence I myself would do - with the blinds shut, the world cut off the world would pass me by and I would think of my own mortality and death.
A particular scene struck a chord with me - When I would lie in my hospital bed My Mum would wet a flannel and rub it all over my hands - not only was it soothing it was therapeutic. When you have Chemo your senses are all turned around so to have someone very softly massage your hands is like heaven. It was beautiful when Susie rubbed lotion on her hands...
I have to say the scene that got me blubbering uncontrollably was when Dr. Bearing's professor came to visit and read her the beautiful, simple and charming 'Runaway Bunny' - I would get my mum to read to me too in hospital.
I myself never really had any doctors or consultants who were cold or bad at their job - one consultant who didn't really have the human touch left before I even started my treatment and then I got a loving consultant who I see on a regular basis.
A beautiful, sad film that rightly deals with the realities of Cancer and Chemotherapy and what it can do to the human spirit.