My Sister Emy
Smemily. Emilymoo. Emy.
To those who knew her, Emily was and still is this huge inspiration, a teenager who despite battling cancer cared more about helping others than herself.
To me, her lil sister, well...
She was my maths teacher, fellow foodie, twin, nerd, religious loon, dance partner, dress up buddy and the clumsiest person ive ever met. 18 years old, still couldn't cross a road, cartwheel or ride a bike. she could chat so much crap, something we definitely have in common is we can both talk for Wales. I'd go in her room to borrow a pen, come out three hours later with no idea why I went in her room but I'd have learnt some random new science fact or how she's been looking on Asos for 4 hours for clothes which I knew she would never actually buy because she's so indecisive.
She was our real life Matilda, reading Harry Potter at the age of 7 or taking 12 books on a 10 day holiday. Being on holiday in France, she couldn't have been any older than 10,Emily and my dad fighting over the 600 or something pages of one of the Harry Potter books. I'd ask what book she was reading then "is there a film version?". I vividly remember her her sat on bed reading the first few pages of 'the fault in our stars' then 3 hours later at the dinner table her telling me about her ending because she'd finished it already. She's the polar opposite to me. Our entire childhood we got told how alike we looked, asked if we were twins (which I loved, and she hated) but we didn't see it, to us we looked nothing alike, because we were completely different people it was then hard to see that we looked so similar.
We were very lucky as kids, we went on holiday to France every year, for sometimes up to a month. I remember fondly how Emily would wear a wetsuit swimming, not in the sea, she wore a wet suit swimming in a swimming pool in a holiday resort… to my 10 year old self your big sister wearing a wet suit in the pool was totally normal, looking back she looked absolutely ridiculous.
She loved school (weird know). Throughout post transplant she still went to Uni lectures when she could, after first diagnosis she was out of school for 6 months and yet still sat summer A level exams, not easy subjects either, Maths, Biology and Chemistry; if she had her way she would have done French as well. I remember visiting her in hospital and she would be working on Welsh Bacc, god knows why, I didn't do that work and I didn't have the excuse of being on chemo. she's did.
She was the kind of sister who would make me revise. She taught me everything on my maths GCSE paper and I got my B first time thanks to her.
When she was first diagnosed with Burkitts, I didn't see her cry, in fact from December 2013 to March 2016 not once did I see her cry.. From the first time I visited her in hospital (Boxing Day 2013) she talked about how she could help others going through the same, she took her own experience and looked to find ways to make others experiences better. Throughout her cancer journey I never saw the impact her blogs had on people, I would just see her working away at her laptop but never really read them. Not until after her death did I see how amazing she really was/ is. She's just my Emy.
She was always so positive. Days before she was admitted to the ‘teenage cancer trust’ hospital unit, we sat in my room and she let me straighten her lions Maine of a head of hair (she very rarely let me do her hair). We laughed and joked what she’d look like bald, looking for anything skin coloured to put on her head (skin coloured tights) we came to the conclusion she’d look like one of the blue aliens off the Argos advert…. But lets be honest, she absolutely rocked having no hair!
So for those of you who knew em, and those who didn't, that's a small piece of who Emily was to me.
My Hero. My Big Sis. My Emy
P.s please share this on your social media (shown below) to help me reach teenagers like me who are looking for someone to relate to.
Keep Smiling,
Hol x
